New residences for low-income, elderly approved

Apple Valley has given final approval for a new townhouse development for families with low to moderate incomes and two new senior apartment complexes.

The developments are slated for construction in the next year or two in the Cobblestone Lake area, a former gravel-mining site in the southeastern corner of the city.

"Especially in today's economic times, it is increasingly important to provide affordable housing for our workforce and growing senior population," said Mark Ulfers, executive director of Dakota County's Community Development Agency (CDA), which is the developer of two of the three projects.

While the senior housing isn't controversial, the $5.8 million townhouse development led to complaints last summer, with a hundred or so people turning out to hear more and voice their concerns. The City Council rejected that plan by the CDA to build midtown, near W. 145 Street and Flagstaff Avenue. But with a recent 4-1 vote, the council cleared the way for construction in 2010 of a 45-unit rental townhouse project in a new location, just north of the Cobblestone Lake neighborhood at Pilot Knob Road and W. 155th Street.

Ulfers said the townhouse project will offer affordable two- and three-bedroom units for those typically earning $12 to $15 an hour in retail, services or manufacturing jobs. There's strong demand for affordable housing for people in those income ranges, he said.

The council approved zoning and variance requests and the development agreement for the townhouses, known as the Apple Valley East Townhomes. The CDA will sell tax credits to investors to finance the townhouse project, which still hinges on whether the Metropolitan Council will approve a grant to buy the land in the next few weeks, Ulfers said.

Plans for the townhouses had stirred consternation in some Cobblestone Lake neighborhood residents who had heard the pitch that this would be an upscale planned community. Residents also were angered when the city's second SuperTarget opened nearby -- which was a far cry from the small shops originally envisioned for the area.

The Met Council has said that Apple Valley, for example, needs 1,307 affordable housing units by 2020. (The 319 new units now approved aren't included.)

'Fearful of change'

Ulfers said controversy often subsides once people educate themselves on what the projects will involve, and when they see that the developments are architecturally attractive and well managed. "In general, we find that people are fearful of change, and so are comfortable with the status quo," he said.

People worry, Ulfers said, about what low-income housing might mean to their neighborhoods: More crime? Declining home values? The disappearance of open space?

But the Apple Valley East Townhomes will be the 17th family townhouse project for residents of low and moderate incomes in Dakota County since 1991, Ulfers said.

Bruce Nordquist, Apple Valley's community development director, said demographics show more senior living space like that offered in these developments also is needed.

"As the city and county population continues to age, these additional choices match the increasingly sophisticated senior decisions on lifestyle and services that they want with their housing," Nordquist said.

225 percent increase

Between 2000 and 2030, Dakota County's 65-and-over population is projected to increase by 225 percent, growing from 26,250 to 86,000.

So Nordquist said he was excited about the green light for the 214-unit Cobblestone Lakes Senior Campus, which is being developed by a Rochester-based private firm, Oxford Senior Funds, on the south shore of Cobblestone Lake in 2009.

Across the street, there will be a 60-unit senior citizen apartment building as long as that developer, the CDA, gets the Met Council grant.

The CDA will issue bonds and will use a portion of its county levy to finance the $7.2 million building, Ulfers said.