The Henry County Board of Supervisors recently heard an update on the Villa Heights Community Housing Project, which will provide 16 site-built new, affordable, single-family homes.
Lee Clark, director of Planning, Zoning, & Inspections, said the county cleaned up a few structures of the Villa Heights area using a section of the county’s existing code.
Now, “we’re going to turn that into 16 new site-built homes,” he said, adding the homes will be a “mixture of two-bedroom and three-bedroom units.”
Clark said he believes the project will be transformative for that community.
“What was there for a number of years had created an environment that wasn’t healthy, and I think we’re going to do is going to be transformative and actually a big positive for that” community, he said.
Clark said the county currently owns the sites after it took possession of the properties through judicial processes. “We’re going to use them to our benefit now,” he added.
Clark believes the housing project will attract some current commuters to make a move.
“Just over 8,500 people travel into Martinsville-Henry County to work. These are the people that we’d love to attract to not only work here, but also live here,” Clark said. “We believe that housing studies support this concept and what we also believe through those studies is there is a lack of the type and price range of the housing here that people desire. That’s exactly what we’re going to try and capitalize on.”
The county will be working with Virginia Housing on the project. That agency has invested $20,000 so far in the site planning and surveying to clean the property lines up.
“You as a board have already invested $228,000 for the acquisition and demolition of the dilapidated structures there,” he said.
The West Piedmont Planning District Commission (WPPPC) will hold the ownership of the lots for the county during the development phase, Clark said, and explained “that’s just a legal maneuver that keeps the county from acting like a Housing Authority, which we are not. But Piedmont can hold those properties for us while we develop them.”
The Harvest Foundation will be a significant partner in the project, Clark said, with the details “yet to come.”
Moving forward, Clark said there is one more property that was recently acquired
“We’re going to be clearing that lot, probably within the week. Immediately after that, we’re going to be surveying those 31 lots into 16 normal sized, normal dimensioned building lots suitable for new construction,” he said.
Building plans will also be finalized and the county will start meeting with contractors to get price estimates, feedback, and ideas on the best way to do this from a value-standpoint, Clark said.
“I’ve got some good ideas that I know will work to make these units more affordable. Then the final aspect that I plan to do is bid these out. We’ll probably bid them out three at a time, get them constructed, and then put them on the market for sale,” he said.
A realtor will be used to sell the properties, Clark said, and noted that neither the county, WPPDC, Harvest, and Virginia Housing are using the project to make money.
Rather, “we’re in this to invest in our community and create a better housing stock, and a desirable housing stock, that we think will meet the needs of our citizens and actually attract more citizens for us in this community,” Clark said.
“The biggest reason why people live outside the area and come into our area to work is that we don’t have the type of housing here that they desire,” he said. “That’s what our goal is here. To try to create the type of housing that they desire.”
