Home › Programs › Share Community Land Trust › Meadowlark & Affordable Housing ›

Upper Valley MEND / SHARE Affordable Housing in the Titus-Chumstick Valley

 | Executive Summary of the Business Plan for Meadowlark |

Background

Many citizens of the Upper Valley have already shown great support with words, deeds and dollars for the creation of affordable housing in our community.  Currently SHARE (Securing Homes on Affordable Real Estate, the affordable housing arm of non-profit Upper Valley MEND), is working toward building up to 100 new residences within the next decade. This will be a new neighborhood that is an ECO Village with a green, sustainable approach using parks, streams, paths and wetlands. They will be developed on a 15-acre tract land owned by MEND that lies between Titus Road and the Chumstick Highway. The key to making single family affordable housing work is that while residents buy and own their homes, SHARE holds the land in trust and maintains certain controls over resale of the homes. Thus, the cost of acquiring a home relates primarily to the cost of the structure, and not the land it sits on.

Making the Titus-Chumstick project a reality is a huge undertaking. SHARE’s approach will utilize the following strategies:

  1. Breaking the project into phased steps, starting with Phase I
  2. Forming a strong relationship with the private owners of land adjacent to the SHARE property to develop a unified vision and master planning with cost sharing for infrastructure (utilities and roads) development
  3. Engaging the City of Leavenworth and Chelan county as partners in planning, funding and execution
  4. With the city as partner and applicant for public funding, obtain funding for infrastructure from Community Development Block Grants (CDBG),
  5. SHARE secures private community and public funds for the housing

More about PHASE I:

  1. Environmental reviews and initial planning are complete
  2. Our goal is to complete master planning, finish 1st Phase planned unit development, obtain funding, and begin construction of infrastructure in 2012
  3. Infrastructure will include a portion of the road connecting Titus and Chumstick, along with utilities to service both Titus LLC (a private partner, Rudy Prey) and SHARE/Phase I lots
  4. Approximately 30 housing units are planned for Phase 1, slated to include a mix of single family, duplex and apartments, with construction slated for 2012
  5. Consultants and engineers with expertise and experience are committed to the project
  6. City and County are reviewing Phase 1 preapplication.  City is reviewing options for sponsoring CDBG application for utilities of $1,000,000.

The benefits of the Titus-Chumstick project include:

  1. Increases the number of families living in the community where they work
  2. Revitalizes our schools and other local organizations by bringing in younger families
  3. Creates affordable, inviting, sustainable and community-centered housing
  4. A Green Eco village with a diverse neighborhood that can be a model & showcase
  5. Utilizes a non-profit/public/private partnership to obtain new water, sewer & road infrastructure that other Urban Growth Area landowners can utilize

HISTORY

SHARE (Securing Homes on Affordable Real Estate) was established by Upper Valley MEND in 1998 out of its concern for the rising costs of housing in our area. Limited land availability coupled with the growing desirability of the area (sought after by people outside of the community) has caused the cost of housing and land to skyrocket beyond what many within the community can afford. 

In 2008, SHARE Community Land trust conducted a study to examine the problems created by the lack of affordable housing in the Upper Valley, specifically to the economy and quality of life. The results confirmed what the community at large already knew to be true:

  1. The “affordability gap” is real and grown significantly worse within recent years
  2. The impact/costs to the community show up in many concrete ways
  3. There are many reasons to believe the problem will only get worse
  4. Long-term solutions are bigger than SHARE and will require community support and action

The study also concluded that it is not just the low wage workers that are affected but a large portion of the Leavenworth work force as well as the employers who suffer from turnover or a diminished local employee work force.  The local work force is vital to the growth and well being of our community.  If this trend continues, Leavenworth will lose the small town character that is as fundamental and special as is the natural beauty that surrounds it.

** View or download the entire Affordable Housing Study .pdf  |  word