Affordable-housing project at Gifford Gardens site is back on the table, with price caps

Thomas Weber, Treasure Coast Newspapers
·3 min read
The Gifford Gardens property is seen on Tuesday, July 13, 2021, along 40th avenue at 47th Lane, in Indian River County. The county is looking into redeveloping the property that once held a 55-unit apartment complex, and turning the 3.3-acre site into 22 affordable homes.

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Gifford Gardens affordable-housing project is back on the table as the County Commission, for the second time, is soliciting interest from developers.

Among the changes this time: Homes could cost no more than $275,000.

"This is a start," said Commissioner Joe Earman. "The last one was way off-base."

The property, 4730 40th Ave., used to be home to a 55-unit apartment complex, which fell into disrepair and was demolished after years of complaints from police and health officials.

The county in 2020 purchased the 3.3-acre property for $10,000 to donate it to a developer with the hope of establishing affordable housing for the Gifford community, but plans haven't materialized.

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Only one developer, East to West Development, applied to build housing there, and the County Commission unanimously rejected the proposal in April because the developer's projected sales price — $350,000 for each three-bedroom home — was too high.

But the County Commission Tuesday unanimously approved a new request for developer proposals, with updated guidelines to keep the site's future homes more affordable.

"We're shooting for something not to exceed $275,000," said County Administrator Jason Brown. "Of course, if the cost is lower, that would be welcomed. But we wanted to set a kind of an upper-limit threshold."

Along with capping home prices, income limits for purchasers were lowered. Under the new proposal, only families that make 80% of the area's average median income could purchase a home there. That threshold equates to $51,150 annually for a two-person household or $63,900 for a four-person household, Brown said.

"We had gotten some feedback from the community," Brown said. "They wanted to make sure we were reaching the people most in need, and so that 80% threshold was set."

The income limit previously was 120% of the area's average median income.

Under the new plan, $500,000 in federal COVID-relief funding would be provided by the county to the developer. Previously, the county offered $350,000.

That money would go toward engineering, design and development costs such as road construction. The county hopes more aid will result in a more-affordable product from the developer, Brown said.

The county is still offering the land to developers for free, along with pre-paid impact fees and water and sewer installation.

The request for proposals will go out within the next few weeks, Brown said, and the county hopes to receive proposals from developers in the following months.

"The goal with this project is that these are to be home-ownership properties to help the residents there build wealth," he said. "So it's not a rental project. It's a homeowner project."

Thomas Weber is TCPalm's Indian River County government watchdog reporter. You can reach him at thomas.weber@tcpalm.com or 813-545-9113. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Gifford Gardens affordable housing project back on the table