Analysis says property in Cambridge Township is prime for new housing development

CAMBRIDGE − An April market feasibility analysis commissioned by the Cambridge-Guernsey County CIC from Vogt Strategic Insights says that a 47-acre piece of land in Cambridge Township near the former state hospital in north Cambridge is prime for workforce and older adult housing to meet the needs of the growing demographics in Guernsey County.

“We are going out and talking with companies and we’re hearing that there isn’t a lot of housing available in Guernsey County,” said Bill Arnett, economic development director of the Cambridge-Guernsey County CIC. “It’s difficult to attract talent and bring in new folks when they can’t find a house locally. The whole idea of housing is a big deal right now in economic development, especial in this part of Ohio.”

The property is located near 66371 Old Twenty-One Road in Cambridge Township near the former state hospital, now the Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare.

“A consortium purchased the property from the state of Ohio in 2000, when the state was getting out of large mental health facilities and had excess acreage,” said Arnett.

The five-partner consortium of government and other organizations who purchased the property include Guernsey County, the CIC, the Port Authority, the city of Cambridge, and Cambridge Township.

“We talk about it being community-owned,” said Arnett. “It’s not privately owned.”

What the market can support

Arnett said the consortium felt housing was a huge need and requested the feasibility analysis to understand what the market would support. Specifically, to “evaluate the market potential for market-rate and affordable/workforce rental and for-sale single-family housing” options at the site, according to the report.

“What we thought the report would say is housing is needed at every level, including rental, affordable/workforce, market rate, and older adult housing,” said Arnett. “And that’s exactly what it said.”

The report assumes multiple development sites on the acreage and says that “support does exist for new construction rental housing and/or entry-level for-sale single-family housing.”

The report suggests garden-style, townhouse apartments and/or elevator-served buildings at $340-$950/month; ranch-style apartments with attached garage and/or elevator-served buildings at $1,100 to $1,350/month; garden-style and/or townhouse apartments at $1,025 to $1,375/month; or single-family homes priced at $42,500 to $67,500 per lot or $170,000 to $270,000 with home and lot.

Arnett said those types of housing would support what he’s seeing largely due to the Intel plant in Licking County. He said it’s driving much of the workforce housing need as overflow from that company is moving into surrounding counties as far east as Cambridge.

“We know hundreds and thousands are coming in from Intel,” said Arnett. “One of our partners is Ron Gombeda (executive director of the Guernsey County CDC), and he sees the same need for workforce housing. He has a real strong focus on making rentals available at an affordable price.”

Gombeda said in a previous article about receiving the Appalachian Community Grant to extend the Guernsey County Trail that his office has a focus on quality of life.

“We focus on what families can do when they come here,” said Gombeda in May. “Schools, parks, playgrounds. The more you can show (families and companies) that it’s a great place to live and work, the more you give them a reason to locate to your county.”

And Guernsey County needs more businesses and families relocating to the area.

Aging residents and housing stock

According to the report, “population and household levels within Guernsey County are slowly declining. Projections indicate that households headed by a person up to age 34 and those headed by a person age 45 to 64 will decrease between 2023 to 2028, while all other age cohorts will increase.

The report states the largest increase in Guernsey County will be households that are age 75 to 84, which “indicates a growing need for senior-specific housing in the market,” a problem seen across Appalachia.

“In rural Ohio, most of our county populations are declining not increasing,” said Arnett. “We’re all getting older. We see a need certainly for empty nesters and for seniors.”

The current housing stock is aging, too.

“There’s not a lot of new housing going up,” said Arnett. “This report gives us the ability to target developers who work in all these needed spaces.”

Arnett said he won’t attack one issue over the other.

“Our goal from the consortium is to try to attack these issues as broadly as we can,” he said. “We could do all sorts of housing in that space from standalones to multilevel apartments or townhouses — there are a lot of options.”

Next steps

He said next steps will be preparing the land and then getting a quote on cost and how a developer might address the issues.

“We will engage with an engineering firm and assess the costs to prepare the site for development and extending utilities,” said Arnett, who said he hopes that would happen over the summer. “We think there’s hope for attracting developers if we’re ready for them.”

Arnett said he doesn’t believe developers would be incentivized enough unless the site was shovel ready.

“If we had a subdivision plotted and ready, that would make it more attractive,” he said.

Once he has a number on how much the project will cost, then he said the group will look for grants and other avenues to pay for the project.

“When you’re trying to ask for money they want to see a high-level estimate,” said Arnett. “We don’t have a number right now.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Analysis says property in Cambridge Township is prime for new housing development