More public housing units for low-income Taylor residents may soon be on the horizon, but city leaders said they are not happy with the proposed project due to a lack of city input.
According to officials, the design does not conform to the standards of the Envision Taylor Comprehensive Plan.
At a joint workshop with the Taylor Housing Authority board and the City Council March 27 at the Taylor Public Library, city officials expressed displeasure after receiving a presentation from a representative of consultants Knight Development regarding a $38 million endeavor to expand public housing in the city.
“One of the reservations I have is this has been an important project to the city of Taylor for quite some time coming,” said Mayor Brandt Rydell. “It holds a lot of potential, and frankly I see an opportunity squandered on what I am seeing right here and what I am hearing. I am a little disappointed on where we are in this process. I am a little upset with this.”
Katie Anderson, Knight Development’s vice president of publichousing relations, presented an overview of the two projects. They are scheduled to begin construction in August and slated to open at the end of 2025.
Plans include rehabilitating the Mary Olson Apartments, a 48-unit public housing development on 7 acres near 311 E. Seventh St. and the construction of 71 new units at the Avery Apartments on a portion of 8 acres at 310 E. Rio Grande St.
“We are helping Taylor work through a new opportunity that HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development) has made available called the Rental Assistance Demonstration project,” Anderson said. “The RAD program allows a housing authority, a state entity that is federally funded ... to access private equity funding.”
In 2015, the Avery Apartments sustained heavy damage during a Memorial Day flood, which forced all residents to relocate. In 2019, the complex was demolished with the hopes of rebuilding.
But city officials, including Assistant City Manager Tom Yantis, expressed concerns the designs submitted under this proposal, which include a twostory elevation of the Avery Apartments, do not reflect the housing designs in the city’s Envision Taylor Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted in November 2021 and has been amended several times since.
“It seems like we have been talking with Ebby (Green, CEO Taylor Housing Authority) for five years about this project, and the thing that we have said all along is the most important part of this is ensuring that what gets constructed here is compatible with the neighborhood and compatible with our comprehensive plan,” Yantis said.
He added, “The way that we ensure that is the city has its own urban-design consultant that we use to ensure compatibility of new neighborhoods with existing neighborhoods, and so we have a process that we go through.
In fact, we have one coming up in April. It’s a weeklong design charrette with our urban design consultant.”
Green said the reason the development has been rushed has to do with state funding the city only became eligible for earlier this year through a lottery that required designs to be submitted and implemented rapidly in order
to be eligible. “I think there has been some concern about our not participating with the city on this, but the bonds became available, and that’s why there was this rush to try to get our application in,” Green said. “Otherwise, we would have to wait another year, but all along we have been talking about cooperating with the city and working with the city on this.”
City leaders attempted to clarify with Anderson exactly how far along the process was and if the city could still play a role in the design.
“You said plans are preliminary, and yet you said construction commences in August?” Rydell said.
Anderson said there was still some room for the city to contribute ideas, but things will be moving quickly.
“I would say they are preliminary only from the standpoint that we are preparing for the closing,’ she said. “We do have architectural plans and some things in place, but you are probably going to see some movement happening very quickly. We are moving forward to closing at the end of July. We do have plans and specs that are not finalized, but they are moving through the stages.”
