Friday, April 19, 2024
The Commissioners Court unanimously lent its support Tuesday to an effort by the city of Granbury and the Granbury Housing Authority (GHA) to provide affordable apartment housing for families.
If the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs awards a Housing Tax Credit for the proposed Meander Park project, the twostory apartment complex will provide 48 2- and 3-bedroom apartment units for families.
The city needed the county’s support because five of the project’s 10 acres at Meander Road south of North Fork Court are in the city’s extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ). The application and the resolution adopted by the Commissioners Court had to be submitted to the state by Friday.
City Manager Chris Coffman and Mayor Pro Tem Tony Mobly were present at the regular meeting of the Commissioners Court to speak about the proposed project, as was Ramon Guajardo with Ramel Company LLC.
Mobly stressed that the project is not Section 8 government housing.
“We’re fighting the image that this is low-income housing,” Mobly said. “It is not.”
Granbury has a growing retail industry, but Mobly noted that many who work in retail can’t afford to live here.
Twenty-four of Meander Park’s units would be 2-bedroom and 24 units would be 3-bedroom.
Ten of the units would be leased at market rate. Lease payments for the other units would be based on income.
According to Guajardo, Granbury will find out in July whether Meander Park is chosen as the sole project in Region 3 to receive a Housing Tax Credit.
Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle questioned Coffman about a recent article in the HCN that detailed his warning to the City Council that the city has reached its capacity with apartment units.
Between projects that have been completed and others that are on the drawing board, there are about 600 units.
Coffman acknowledged his words of caution to the council but told Eagle that the Meander Park project has been in the works for two years.
The GHA’s current housing – which consists of 100 duplexes and fourplex units intermingled on Crockett, Rucker, Houston, Travis, Thrash, Baker, Barton, Live Oak and Mill streets – is about 50 years old.
The GHA is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The agency serves families as well as the elderly.
In August 2018, the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs awarded a Housing Tax Credit to GHA for Hill Court Villas, a 48-unit, one- and twobedroom complex behind Lowe’s Home Improvement.
That development will be for those age 62 and older. Twelve of the units will be leased at market rate.
Mobly said that the apartment projects are “rent relief for those less fortunate.”
He stated that no one at the complexes will know who is paying market rate and who is paying an income-based amount unless they choose to share that information.
