Work is progressing on constructing a new fire hall on the Richter property in Osoyoos. A deal signed Thursday will lead to construction of affordable housing on 20 lots on the remainder of the Richter property to the south. (Richard McGuire photo)
An agreement to sell the remainder of the town’s Richter Property will allow for the construction of at least 20 new moderately priced homes to move forward.
The Town of Osoyoos announced last Thursday that it has signed an agreement with Ellcar Construction of Osoyoos, giving the company the option to purchase 20 residential lots.
Ellcar also has first right of refusal to purchase an additional six lots.
The deal gives a potential boost to the town’s efforts to attract young families to the community, boosting school enrolments, at a time when School District 53 (SD 53) is threatening to close one of the two Osoyoos schools.
Although declining enrolments are a district-wide problem, SD 53 is only considering closing Osoyoos schools.
Three of the new units would be subsidized and the remainder will be built on smaller lots, which Ellcar President Hart Buckendahl said he hopes will allow them to be sold for less than $350,000 each.
“Construction of these moderately priced and subsidized units will assist existing residents to achieve home ownership and attract new families to our community,” Mayor Sue McKortoff said in a statement last Thursday.
With the proposed density and three subsidized units, the town meets the requirement to have the land removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).
The Richter property is southwest of 74th Avenue and Highway 97 adjacent to the location of the new fire hall. The Richter remainder is south of the fire hall on the remaining land.
This property forms part of the Southeast Meadowlark subdivision, which extends from the Osoyoos Baptist Church to the new fire hall and is slated for medium-density housing development.
The long-term plan is for the town to allow as many as 300 moderate-priced homes in the entire subdivision.
Buckendahl said he is ready to start construction as soon as the survey is completed and the lands are released from the ALR.
Under the agreement, he will acquire the lots at a price determined following a professional appraisal.
“The town is going to make sure they are reasonably priced,” he said.
McKortoff said the town has also agreed to supply services such as sewer, water and roads.
“I’m going to start building the houses and hopefully I’m going to have some houses ready to go by the time they do their paving and get the streets all finished,” said Buckendahl. “I’ll be working concurrently with the subdivision, coming in from the back end, while they’re working on the streets. So that way we’ll get a bit of a head start. I would like to have some homes well underway before the new year.”
Two of the first four houses that will be built will be subsidized units, he said.
The houses will be detached, single-family homes and “fee simple,” meaning that the buyer owns the land and it is not part of a strata that sets rules and charges fees, Buckendahl said.
They will be two-storey and around 1,400 to 1,500 square feet on smaller lots just over 30 feet wide.
“They’re going to be normal-sized houses, but they are going to have a staircase,” said Buckendahl. “You can’t build a 1,400 square-foot house on a footprint of a lot that small without going up.”
McKortoff noted that Osoyoos already has some housing in this price range, but these older homes need upgrades and often maintenance.
“This will be brand new, with appliances and everything in them,” she said. “So we think it’s a good thing for Osoyoos.”
The homes will have a view of the mountains and some may be able to see the lake from the upper level.
“It’s a lovely spot,” she said.
She sees this development as a first step to developing the rest of Southeast Meadowlark.
“We’re certainly hoping that if this is successful and moves forward, that the rest of the Southeast Meadowlark will (also proceed),” McKortoff said.
The town will need to establish an affordable housing authority to select families eligible to purchase subsidized homes.
McKortoff said the structure for this is already in place.
In both the Richter remainder and elsewhere in Southeast Meadowlark, at least 15 per cent of the lots must be allocated to subsidized housing as a condition for their removal from the ALR.
The town purchased the Richter property in 2009 for the new fire hall at a cost of $2.3 million.
The rest of Southeast Meadowlark is privately owned, but the town developed a plan for it in 2010, most recently revised in 2013, calling for medium-density housing of at least 30 units per hectare.
Buckendahl said he didn’t respond when the town put out requests for interest from developers last year because he was busy at the time with other projects in Vernon and Kelowna.
With those projects virtually finished, the timing in Osoyoos now makes sense, he said.
“We know there is a market and if you build a nice product, which we do, I’m pretty sure it’s going to sell,” Buckendahl said. “Everything you do in building is speculative. There’s no guarantee to anything. I really feel strongly that there is a market.”
Many houses in the area are priced at $400,000 to $600,000 on average, which can be sold to people who have retired from the oilfields on the Prairies with money, but they are beyond the price range of many local people, he said.
The houses he plans to build in Osoyoos would be affordable for first-time buyers and families, as well as retired people with less money who are currently renting, said Buckendahl.
This project will be good for everybody – the town, builders and trades, many of whom are from Osoyoos, he said.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
