Plan For 60 Dwelling Units In City
Long In Gestation, Developer Says
By LIBBY CUDMORE• allotsego.com
ONEONTA – When Ben Lockwood, vice president of Housing Visions, came to Oneonta six years ago, he knew he had the tools to fill a need. “I saw the Oneonta really needed housing,” he said. “The student population puts a stress on low-income residents who need access to their jobs, services and shopping.”
That project fell through. But Wednesday, at the city Planning Commission meeting, Lockwood got to present a 60-bedroom project two years in the making. “We want to be a catalyst for positive sustainable neighborhood revitalization,” he said.
Since 1990, Housing Visions has built 1,300 low-income units in Syracuse, Binghamton, Albany, Oswego, Rome and Corning.
In 2012, former city manager Mike Long and Planning Commission vice chair Gary Herzig – also chief operating officer of Opportunities for Otsego – approached Lockwood again in hopes of revisiting the project. “There isn’t much low-income housing here in Oneonta,” said Herzig. “This is an important need.”
Last night, Lockwood presented sketch plans for two sites, a project totaling $15 million. The first would demolish five foreclosed and abandoned structures on Columbia and West streets – four homes and a garage – to build one rental townhouse and two apartment buildings with four units each designed for young families.
The biggest concern that the commission had is with parking. The sketch plan had room for 13 spaces, but with a potential for 20 tenants had commissioner Edmond Overbey asking questions: “If there are 14 vehicles, where does number 14 park?”
“See if you can squeeze in 19 spaces when you come back with the site plan,” said chair Dennis Finn.
But another concerned raised was the structures themselves being torn down. “When we first heard about Housing Visions, we believed they were interested in owner-occupied, rehabbed housing, not demolition,” said council member Bob Brzozowksi.
But the homes on Columbia and West, said Lockwood, were too deep into disrepair. “Over at 23 Columbia, the former owner gutted the house,” he said. “It’s a shell.”
Robert Chiappisi, code enforcement officer, agreed. “There’s so much dry rot in the floors, that if I walked in there, I’d fall through,” he said. “It’s cost-prohibitive to try and rehab the place.”
The second project is “Oneonta Heights,” a planned 4-unit senior housing building with two four unit row-style single family townhouses in a vacant lot along Silver Avenue. The building would have an elevator, a community center and several small reading rooms, as well as considerable green space and a flood plain along Silver Creek.
“This is a very exciting project,” said council member Maureen Hennessy. “We’ve been dealing with housing issues as long as I’ve been on the board. Taking properties that look terrible and converting them is a positive for the city.”
Lockwood hopes to have the site plan prepared for the Nov. 19 meeting in hopes of submitting plans for financing in early December.