Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Winsted reinstates new housing program



Ivan Raconteur
Editor

WINSTED, MN – The Winsted City Council, during its Jan. 15 meeting, approved a 2019 new home construction program and authorized the city administrator to begin accepting applications Monday, Feb. 4.

City Administrator Adam Birkholz noted that recently, city staff was contacted by an area real estate agent and housing developer to determine if the city would incentivize new home construction.

As part of the Economic Development Authority’s (EDA) goal of increasing housing availability within the City of Winsted, the EDA recently reviewed the new home construction program guidelines implemented in 2016.

“The purpose of the program is to assist and encourage the development of privately-owned housing. The need for this type of housing was previously identified in the 2015 City of Winsted housing study,” Birkholz noted in a memo to the council.

“Generally, the program seeks to incentivize the private development of either single–family homes or townhomes (with only one shared wall) by waiving the building permit fees and also delaying the payment of water access charge (WAC) and sewer access charge (SAC) fees until one of three conditions are satisfied.

The EDA recommended approval of the program.

The total number of eligible single-family or townhomes (with one shared wall) will be limited to five through the end of 2019. Given the recommended program waiver limit of $2,000, the total cost exposure of the city will be $10,000.

Consensus of the council was that if the program goes well, the council could consider extending it beyond the initial five units.

Odds and ends

In other business, the council:

• accepted a $15,000 donation and a $697 donation from the Winsted Volunteer Fire Department Relief Associaton to be dedicated toward the Winsted Volunteer Fire Department’s capital improvement plan.

• heard a status update from Birkholz on the council’s 2018 priorities.

“I think we did well,” Stotko commented. “Projects we talked about for years are now in progress.”

• heard a presentation from Holy Trinity Principal Dr. Bonnie Jungels and students Michael Dietz and Katlyn Pokornowski about things that have been going on at Holy Trinity School over the past several months.

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