TTT Development of Waite Park has been looking for years to find the right location for an affordable housing project in Sartell, and that search continues now that the City Council has denied the developer’s rezoning request for a project that would create 48 homes for low- and moderate-income renters.
Elected officials and city staff at the June 24 City Council meeting agreed that the St. Cloud-area community needs more affordable housing, but that wasn’t enough to override other council concerns about the proposed project location near the intersection of Roberts Road and Beetle Boulevard.
By a 3-1 vote, the council denied a request for rezoning the site for from “B-2 General Business District” to “R-3 Multi-Family Residential District,” leaving the project in limbo just weeks before the developer was expected to submit a funding application to the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
Kari Haakonson, project supervisor for the city of Sartell, said in an interview Friday that the developer has turned its attention to another potential location in the city.
“They have a private agreement with the property owner that I haven’t been involved with. They are not asking for any variance or rezoning,” said Haakonson, who was not able to provide additional details about the potential new location.
Finance & Commerce reached out to the developer for comment Friday.
A project narrative, which describes TTT Development LLC as a women-owned business in Waite Park, reveals that the new apartment building would offer one-, two- and three-bedroom homes and would be designed to “passive house” standards.
Planned amenities range from a large community room to outdoor play areas. Some of the units would include accessible features, such as roll-under sinks, transfer and roll-in showers, grab bars in the bathroom, and “open concept designs” in the kitchen and living areas.
Megan Carr, representing TTT Development, said at the June 24 council meeting that the project would offer homes for people at 60% or less of the area’s median income, which works out to about $59,000 a year for a family of four.
“We’re looking at families that would be challenged to find housing that would be affordable for them in the city of Sartell, or individuals who are moving out of their single-family home or duplex, looking for rentals, looking for that next step to not have to maintain a yard, that maybe are on a fixed income,” Carr said.
TTT Development has been looking at sites in the city for 10 years, Carr said.
The proposed site was appealing in part because of its close proximity to public transportation. Unlike other sites zoned for multifamily construction in Sartell, it would meet requirements needed to compete for funding from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, she said.
Other sites are “very close, but they’re just like 0.1 mile away from meeting [that requirement] if we pushed the building as close as we could to the property line and tried to make it work,” Carr said.
But that didn’t convince the council to rezone the site.
The city put a lot of effort into identifying suitable sites for multifamily housing a couple of years ago, and the developer’s preferred location isn’t among those sites, Council Member Tim Elness said at the June 24 meeting.
“We need affordable housing in Sartell. My concern is that we have a number of sites that work or we picked for high density. How do we comply to that initial plan that we all agreed on and voted on accepted as a city, and then continue [to rezone]?
“This is two or three times now that we’ve been approached to change our zoning to multifamily. I have some concern about just changing every single time somebody comes forward with a concept. It’s a great concept that’s needed. I just wish it was in the right zone area for us.”
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