October 15, 2024 at 5:50 a.m.

Woodruff town board OKs CUP for 50-unit housing project

Dumke: ‘A significant need in this community for affordable workforce housing’
Pictured is an artist’s rendering of housing in Door County developed by Northpointe Development that would be similar to what’s planned as part of a 50-unit housing project in Woodruff. (Submitted image)
Pictured is an artist’s rendering of housing in Door County developed by Northpointe Development that would be similar to what’s planned as part of a 50-unit housing project in Woodruff. (Submitted image)

By BRIAN JOPEK
News Director

On Oct. 8 the Woodruff town board approved a conditional use permit (CUP) application for 50-unit housing development on eight acres located behind the town’s community center and fire department/road department facilities.

Earlier this year, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Housing Authority (WHEDA) awarded a federal housing tax credit (HTC) of nearly $1.4 million to Oshkosh-based Northpointe Development Corporation.

Andy Dumke, who co-founded Northpointe Development Corporation in 2011, told The Lakeland Times in June the intention was to submit plans for the 50 units, 29 cottages and 21 two-story town houses, to the Oneida County planning and zoning department to get the conditional use permit (CUP) application process started. 

“Ideally, that’ll go smoothly,” he said. 

Dumke said each cottage and house will have individual entrances and garages.

Dumke also told the Times the plan is to set rent for a two-bedroom house in the $800 to $900 range while a three-bedroom home will be $1,000 per month. 

According to the WHEDA website, housing tax credits “are used by developers to achieve lower rents that are affordable for low- and moderate-income households.”

“Many HTC properties also include market-rate units that are available to households regardless of income,” the website explains. “HTCs are neither a grant nor a loan; they are federal tax credits that are used to offset income tax liability.”

The equity investment by the developer then “reduces the amount of lending and monthly debt service, needed to finance the development.” 

“Lower debt on the property allows the owner to charge lower monthly rents,” the WHEDA website reads. 

During the town board meeting, Dumke provided a brief overview of the project and answered questions.

“Obviously, from the housing study that was done, there’s a significant need in this community for affordable workforce housing which there is everywhere in the country right now,” he said. “Fortunately, for this community, the way this program works is there’s these tax credits that allow guys like myself to build affordable workforce housing.”

Dumke said one in three “or one in four” tax credit applications from companies all over the state get approved and, essentially, Woodruff hadn’t been considered or approved for any housing projects for several years.

“So, that’s kind of how I zoomed in on this community and ended up talking to (town chairman Mike Timmons) about possibly doing an affordable housing project,” he said.

Dumke said his company has developed and built more than 30 similar project throughout Wisconsin. 

The two closest projects to Woodruff are in Ladysmith, which includes the conversion of an old school into living space, and Wisconsin Rapids. 

“A bunch of them just like this with town homes and cottages,” he said, adding that none of it has been designated as senior housing “but the goal of this to have a certain amount of units for families, which are the town houses and then the cottages can be for someone age 55 or older or they can also be rented to a single individual or a family.”

During the course of his presentation, Dumke asserted the housing would not be what is government subsidized rental, or Section 8, housing but there are parameters in place. 

“The community should understand what this project means,” he said. “What we’ve done is a mix of different set asides, 30, 50 and 80 percent and what that means is in order to qualify to live there, you have to make, say if it’s an 80 percent unit, you have to make 80 percent of the county median income or less to qualify to live in those units. If it’s 50 percent, it’s 50 percent of the county median income to live there and if it’s 30 percent, it’s 30 percent or less.”

Once a person or family is in and qualified, Dumke said, they’re in and “don’t get kicked out.”

“The 80 percent units, you know, a starting teacher’s salary would qualify to live there,” he said. “The 50s and 30s ... that could be somebody that’s in the service industry.”

Dumke then used income examples for clarification. 

“A two-bedroom, 50 percent unit, you need to make $35,700 a year or less to qualify to live in that unit,” he said. “The maximum rent we could charge for that would be $1,000 ... that doesn’t mean that’s what we’ll charge because the market will kind of dictate what we charge but one of the restrictions on this is the rent is supposed to be affordable. So, a project like this, when it’s done, it’s going to feel like a market rate unit.”

Dumke said the company’s cost to construct each unit is $238,000 “which is $12 million.”

 “It’s a significant amount of investment that’s made,” he said. “If this wasn’t an affordable housing project, the charge would be $2,500 a month to make cash flow for the developer.”

However, Dumke reiterated the goal is to help the community “with the issue everybody has.”

“Affordable housing,” he said. 

Dumke said there will be 11 units in the 30 percent income category, 20 will be in the 80 percent and 19 units will be in the 50 percent category. 

With the town board’s approval of the CUP application, it now goes to the Oneida County planning and development committee where a public hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 30. 

Brian Jopek may be reached via email at [email protected].


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