Agenda - Planning Commission - 06/01/2006

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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Introduction This section recommends workforce and senior housing community concepts for Ramsey over the short-term, based on the market findings and demand analysis. A summary of these commu- nity concepts is shown below, followed by detailed recommendations for each housing type. If all of the recommended workforce and senior housing units shown below were built, a total of 300 to 350 units would be added to Ramsey. It should be noted that while we recommend mar- ket rate apartments, only a portion of the units would be occupied by households with moderate- incomes - or workforce households. However, we find that market rate apartments would serve some new employees to the area who are not in a position to purchase housing immediately, but may have incomes too high to income-qualify for subsidized/affordable rental housing (including some people hired as teachers, healthcare workers, and police officers, among others). Summary of Recommended Workforce & Senior Housing Communities City of Ramsey - 2005 to 2010 No. of Units Market Rate General-Occupancy Rental Affordable/Subsidized General-Occupancy Rental Senior Condominium/Cooperative Affordable Senior Rental 125 - 140 80 - 100 45 - 55 50 - 55 Recommended Product Types For-Sale Affordable Multif arnily Demand was calculated for approximately 700 to 775 townhome units affordable to moderate- income households in Ramsey over the next five years. Our analysis also revealed that over 1,000 townhome units are planned in Ramsey; the majority of which we project will be priced under or near $200,000 (in 2005 dollars). These planned units are affordable to moderate- income households. About 400 planned townhome units are located in the Ramsey Town Cen- ter, with several hundred more planned in close proximity. Overall, we find that the private market is meeting the Market Area's demand for for-sale affordable multifamily housing. While affordable multifamily housing is appropriate for Ramsey Town Center (and we encour- age their development), we do not believe that the City of Ramsey needs to form a public/private partnership to ensure their development. While there are several hundred for-sale townhomes under construction or planned in Ramsey, there are no planned condominiums. We would not recommend affordable general-occupancy condominiums, as we found demand for only 35 to 60 units over the next five years. Town- homes are very competitive with condominiums for younger households - one of the primary target markets for condominiums. The other primary target market - active seniors - would be MAXFIELD RESEARCH INC. 58 50