Janesville city manager Kevin Lahner defends an emerging plan for 78 mixed-income apartments in the heart of the city’s downtown.
Lahner Says Bear Property’s project proposed at a city parking lot at Wall Street and North Parker Drive tilts toward housing ranging between $500 and $1,000 monthly rents. The bulk of the properties, 53 units, would be subsidized for tenants with an annual income of $60,000 or less.
Lahner says the proposal is similar to some “market-rate” apartments downtown — although market-rate apartments generally do not have rent subsidies based on tenant income limits.
Some downtown business operators say they’re concerned the project blurs lines between market-rate housing and so-called, lower-cost “affordable,” or “workforce housing.” They said in an unsigned, open letter to private, downtown commercial property owners that they worry Bear’s plan could hurt downtown’s consumer-driven economy.
Lahner initially called the project “workforce housing,” which is a designation the state says lines a property up for certain rent subsidies based on income.
This week, Lahner tells Big Radio he thinks people get too hung up on applying labels to different types of housing. He says Janesville’s residential market has needs across the board.
Lahner says he wishes he could find a better term to describe a mixed housing project like the kind Bear plans, because he says the city needs more of such projects.
Lahner thinks a better term for the “mixed-income housing,” “affordable housing,” or “workforce housing” Bear is considering building might be to call it “housing the average Wisconsinite or Janesvillean can afford.”
Bear’s blend of price points for both the Rockport proposal and the new Parker Drive plan are similar, with monthly rents between $500 and $1,500.
The city’s first step toward moving forward on apartments at North Parker Drive would be to convey the property to Bear so the company can hit a May deadline to apply for state tax credits. Next comes months of work on site plans and zoning requests, a process that will require multiple public hearings. That will give residents multiple chances to speak up on the project.
Bear planned a different, 78-unit housing development on city land at Rockport Road along the Rock River in Janesville’s Fourth Ward. Whether it was the neighborhood location or the flat topography next to the river, part of which is a flood plain, Lahner says the site was not working for Bear.
The city and Bear regrouped, and Lahner says they eventually began talking about the North Parker Drive. The Parker Drive site is about a mile north of the Rockport site. It is a half-acre lot next door to a historic, mixed-use office building at 10 N. Parker Drive known as the Carriage Works.
