Rural housing assessment presented to city council

Creston needs more quality affordable housing, the Rural Housing Readiness Assessment recommends. It also suggests current housing in the city needs to be kept up by enforcing the existing rental and nuisance ordinances

The city was previously awarded a project grant that involved going through a series of workshops with Iowa State University Extension over several months. Union County Development Association Executive Director Wayne Pantini presented the final assessment to the Creston City Council and explained its benefits Dec. 15 during the council’s regular meeting.

“It allowed us to really dig down and understand our housing market, understanding what tools we have from the city, from SICOG (Southern Iowa Council of Governments), from UCDA, from the chamber of commerce to help address the housing conditions and put a plan forward that allows us to implement some action steps,” he said.

The ISU Extension team had the city’s proposed comprehensive plan in front of them as they created the assessment, so the two plans align well, Pantini added.

The assessment spells out a vision for housing in Creston and the steps that need to be taken to achieve its goals. Four working groups were created to oversee those efforts: the New Development group, the Zoning and Code group, the Funding group and the Corridor Development group.

New development

One goals for the New Development group recommends the city develop plans to attract developers by creating non-tax incentives such as waiving fees for permits and connecting to utilities.

“The short-term financial gain of permit surcharges is offset by the long-term property tax benefit to the community,” the assessment explains.

Zoning and codes

The Zoning and Code group will focus on building codes, enforcing and strengthening the city’s nuisance ordinance and developing strategies to encourage the community to help improve the upkeep of properties within the city.

The assessment recommends the city review its current ordinances and zoning codes and then hire a nuisance and code enforcement officer to keep enforcement of the consistent throughout Creston.

“Consistent nuisance code enforcement is key to improving the overall appearance of a community,” it states.

The assessment suggests that Creston may want to look into developing exterior maintenance codes in addition to the current nuisance ordinance.

“Exterior maintenance codes above and beyond existing nuisance code enforcement would set certain uniform standards for items such as gutters, roofs, the building envelope, and windows and doors.” it says.

If the city decides to go this route, the assessment recommends providing incentives and grants for low-income home owners. These home owners may not have the needed resources to upgrade and keep up their homes to meet new codes.

Funding

The goal of the Funding group is to create pathways to make building and rehabilitating housing in Creston affordable and profitable for developers and existing owners including adding incentives, identifying grants and creating tax abatement programs.

“This will gird support for housing projects and put energy in the same direction,” the plan states. “Grant and loan opportunities at the local, state and federal level, from government and nongovernment sources do exist. Working with the Union County Development Association could increase Creston’s capacity to secure funding opportunities”.

Corridor development

The Corridor Development group will focus on specific areas of Creston that are seen as “highly visible, in most need, possess the most potential” or where funding is currently available.

This group will work with the other three groups to “make Creston look like a place you want to live.”

The entire assessment may be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/crestonRHRA.