Creston considers new Cottonwood subdivision

With the shortage of teachers and other professionals, the Union County Development Association is looking to make Creston more attractive with additional housing opportunities.

Austin Smith, a civil engineer with Garden and Associates and UCDA committee member, spoke before Creston City Council at their meeting last Tuesday about developing lots on the North Cottonwood property owned by the city.

“It’s just one of those things, It’s tricky to bring folks to town, especially the school district side or the hospital side, there’s limited lot availability for build-outs,” he said. “The in-fill lot situation is not geared more toward those professional folks coming to town. I know it sounds expensive, a $300,000-$400,000 house.”

A decade ago, the same property was being looked at for city development. At that time, it was on a larger scale - 94 condensed lots. In his recommendation for a preliminary plat as a marketing tool, Smith said they would be looking at 12-13 lots each at .75 acres.

“You’ve got a per lot cost of about $45,000,” he told the council. “Back in 2012, I think we were at close to $30,000. It’s about a 50% increase per lot cost. Granted, it’s been 10 years.”

The property is located east of Cottonwood Road and north of McKinley Lake, Taylor Park and the Sontag properties. The housing would be walk-out style, similar to those on the west side of James Ridge. One lot is left in the James Ridge subdivision and there are five lots available in the James subdivision.

“The housing committee is just feeling the city out for some sort of partnership or if the city had any interest in preliminary planning,” Smith said. “A preliminary platt is just used for marketing purposes really. So it’s more fine-tuning numbers in terms of cost estimates then you can display here’s what we have for sale, presale, and if you have interested buyers, then you move forward as a final platt.”

Council members had concerns about price and funding.

“I have no problem with forward-thinking and investing in the future and all those things, but that’s so much money,” councilman Steve Wintermute said. “I mean $45,000 for a lot? That’s crazy.”

Smith answered the concern with a comparison. “It’s fairly expensive,” he replied. “If you look around different communities, the Winterset area, Osceola, that’s about what lot costs are going for.”

Councilman Rich Madison also had questions. “How do we cash flow? Do these lots have to be sold upfront to pay for the infrastructure?”

Smith said selling the lots upfront would definitely help. “Even if you only had half sold out,” he said.

Mayor Gabe Carroll agreed with the assessment. “This type of development only makes sense if you get lots presold,” he said. “Otherwise you’re taking too big of a risk putting infrastructure in and so forth never getting tax money back.”

The city owns the land, and collects a small amount of money from it. Smith’s proposal estimates the city to collect upwards of $100,000 in taxes for a full build out. With the tax abatement program in place, they wouldn’t recapture those taxes until after year six.

“It’s sticker shock,” Smith said. “Especially when you don’t even include the price of land.” The $45,000 covers the infrastructure for the project.

Without pre-selling the lots, Smith said it’s tricky because they don’t want to put in infrastructure just hoping somebody’s going to come build there.

“If I went out and bought a lot, I’d have to wait until all the other lots are sold?” Wintermute asked.

Smith said at least half - probably around eight or nine lots would need to be sold in order to fund the rest of the project. Carroll said the other option is to presell a few of them and then have a builder come out and build four in a year.

The total cost of the construction would run $563,005, with the preliminary plat costing an estimated $6,000.

“We hear all the time that there is no housing,” Smith said. “This is just one of the solutions we’ve come up with. It’s food for thought.”