Two weeks after the James City County Board of Supervisors had an hours-long public hearing on the proposed Oakland Pointe Apartments in Toano, the issue is back in the public eye.
And up for a vote.
County supervisors will meet for their regular monthly work session at 4 p.m. Tuesday in the County Government Center Board Room.
During the meeting, supervisors are slated to discuss a rezoning and height limitation waiver application for Oakland Pointe, a proposed 126-unit affordable housing apartment complex at 7581 Richmond Road.
The vote was tabled Feb. 12 after some supervisors asked the developer, Connelly Development LLC, to create plans for a scaled-down version of the project.
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The development company, owned and represented by T. Kevin Connelly, agreed to consider a smaller-scale solution.
A revised site plan filed in Tuesday’s agenda documents shows the complex with 119 units, compared to the original 126.
The agenda for Tuesday does not list any public hearing, only a board discussion. The Feb. 12 public hearing closed after 36 people signed up to speak.
Connelly asked supervisors to schedule the project vote for Tuesday’s meeting — instead of the next regular monthly meeting in early March — because the deadline to complete applications for tax credit-funded developments is fast approaching.
The affordable housing development would use low-income tax credits offered by the federal government to help drive rent prices lower.
State-run agencies give a limited number of tax credits to eligible developers, then after the developers receive those credits, they sell them to investors, creating a cash equity to build housing, according to the National Housing Law Project.
The tax credit program doesn’t provide housing subsidies, but instead creates tax incentives which encourage developers to build affordable housing.
Connelly said at the Feb. 12 meeting he had begun the process to apply for the tax credits, but hadn’t been awarded or secured any at that time.
The developer added decreasing the size of Oakland Pointe Apartments could impact the project’s ability to be awarded the tax credits.
Connelly said he has spent more than $300,000 on the project so far, and wouldn’t have spent that “level of money” if he wasn’t sure the project would receive the credits.
Connelly Development has built numerous projects similar to Oakland Pointe along the lower East Coast.
