County Accepts $2 Million Grant for Utility Expansion to Attract Affordable Housing
The money is in addition to federal and state money already earmarked for expansion of service in the Rosman Highway corridor. The Commission also moved ahead with plans for new EMS building.
BREVARD — The Transylvania County Commission on Monday accepted a $2 million grant from Dogwood Health Trust aimed at bolstering utilities in the Rosman Highway corridor and attracting development — especially affordable and workforce housing.
The money is in addition to a $7 million earmark in the recent state budget targeted for utility expansion and upgrades, and the combined funds left commissioners crowing about prospects for future construction along the highway.
They used words like “transformational” and “generational” to describe the coming improvements.
“It’s big wins tonight,” said Commission Vice Chair Jake Dalton.
“If I was a property owner along that corridor right now, I’d be pretty excited about what the future might hold,” added Commissioner David Guice.
The meeting was also treated like a red-letter day because the Commission took actions to secure property, raise money and seek plans for the construction of a new Emergency Medical Services building on Morris Road expected to cost between $2.5 and $2.9 million.
Even before receiving the $7 million earmark from the state, the county had committed $4 million for running utility lines down the Rosman Highway corridor — most of it from outside sources such as the state Department of Commerce and the federal American Rescue Plan stimulus package.
Because the county does not operate a utility service, all the expansion funds it receives will be funneled into the Town of Rosman’s water and sewer systems.
Much of the Dogwood grant will go to those already planned utility-line extensions, which besides opening the corridor up for development will bring service to or near the Gaia Herbs plant on Island Ford Road. That work is expected to be completed next fall.
That means the Dogwood money will free up some of the previously committed federal funds for other utility improvements and reduce the county’s $800,000 contribution to the currently planned sewer line, County Manager Jamie Laughter said after the Commission’s vote to accept the grant.
The work to develop plans for spending the previously announced state money also got a boost at Monday’s meeting, when the Commission voted to allow Laughter to seek bids for engineering work on the utility upgrades the money will pay for. These include the development of a surface-water intake for Rosman, which now withdraws its drinking water from wells.
The money from Dogwood is targeted at developing reasonably priced housing, which is in line with its goal of promoting public health, according to documents provided to commissioners. About $1.6 million will be devoted to utility expansion with the specific goal of attracting at least 84 units of housing.
If the county fails to meet that goal, the documents said, the money will go into the county’s affordable housing land trust.
“The county is getting $1.6 million that will go to workforce housing one way or another,” Commission Chair Jason Chappell said.
The remaining dollars will pay for plans, including a Countywide Housing Plan and drawings for a range of expansions of Rosman’s utility system. Those will position the county to receive future grants that — unlike the $7 million secured by state lawmakers representing Transylvania — require specific proposals.
“Usually you have to show exactly what you’re going to do and exactly how much it’s going to cost,” Laughter said. “What these studies do is set us up so that when that next funding opportunity comes along, we can apply or the town of Rosman can apply.”
Guice also said the county needs to firm up its relationship with Rosman as the town continues to receive county funds and expand services into unincorporated areas of the county.
“We’re not in the water and wastewater business,” he said. “I think we’re going to have to be more engaged and this relationship has to be defined.”
Dalton, owner of a Rosman business, said those discussions had already started.
Commissioner Larry Chapman raised one potential obstacle to attracting housing in the corridor — its distance from existing development. Affordable housing projects receiving federal funding must be accessible to shopping and other services, he said.
“We just have to keep that in mind, that it’s not a panacea having water and sewer lines down there,” he said.
Laughter said that she has raised that issue in her talks with developers and that it will be addressed in the countywide housing plan.
Among the moves designed to allow construction of the new EMS base: the Commission voted to sell the current EMS building and site near the Ingles supermarket for $600,000, which is more than it was valued in an independent appraisal, Laughter said.
The building “has documented structural problems and multiple maintenance issues,” according to a staff report, which also said its location was “problematic” because traffic near the shopping center slows response time.
That money from this sale will go toward the cost of the new building, which will also be partially paid for by a $125,000 earmark in the state budget.
The Commission also approved a land swap with Biltmore Church, trading a parcel it previously purchased on Morris Road for another plot near the corner of Ecusta Road that is “more desirable for rapid deployment of emergency vehicles,” according to a staff report. Both properties cover about two acres.
Finally, the Commission voted to seek bids for the design of the new EMS building, which is expected to take about 18 months to complete.
WOW! Good news.