BERLIN – Berlin residents could see work begin on Cannery Village, the long-awaited rent-to-own community proposed near Flower Street, as soon as January.
The project received final site plan approval from the Berlin Planning Commission as well as a needed tax break from the Berlin Town Council this week.
“I’m really excited for this project,” Councilmember Lisa Hall said.
Cannery Village will be a 45-lot community made up of 44 two- and four-bedroom homes and a community center, according to Andrew Hanson, vice president of Osprey Property Company, the group behind the project.
People who make between 30 and 60 percent of the area’s median income and pass a criminal and credit check will be able to rent the homes for between $400 and $850 a month. After 15 years, renters will have the option to buy the homes.
“We agree to keep the property affordable for 40 years,” Hanson said, explaining that if an individual’s rent was $750 a month the company would arrange for their mortgage payment to be $750 a month.
Once all the homes are sold and Hanson’s company is no longer involved with the project, it will give the community center — which could easily be converted into a four bedroom home — to the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.
Mayor Gee Williams spoke in support of the project.
“The big advantage is it gets people to become permanent members of the community,” he said.
Hanson said all of the homes would be one-floor dwellings so that way they would appeal to seniors as well as anyone else in search of affordable housing.
“We’re excited to see the prospective folks interested in applying,” he said.
He said in a similar project the company had developed, turnover was low and after 10 years many of the original renters were still occupants.
Planning commission members asked Hanson whether he had considered having the development set up for natural gas since it was currently being introduced to the area.
Hanson said he had considered it but thought it would be cost prohibitive. At the commission’s urging though he agreed to inquire again about the possibility of piping it in.
“Now’s the time,” commission member Ron Cascio said, pointing out that the easiest time to do it would be as the community was being developed. “It’s easy right now. It’s harder later.”
Hanson said the Cannery Village development could be complete as early as the summer of 2015. Ideally, he explained, ground would be broken in January and homes would be completed between June and September. He said the project would not be built house-by-house but rather all at once.