Summer 2002
PROJECTS: Visalia Infill Projects Moving Forward
 Visalia
is enhancing its already vibrant downtown while helping to preserve
valuable farmland through two infill housing initiatives currently
underway.
This spring, the City broke ground on Oak Meadows, an affordable
senior infill housing project located in the heart of the downtown.
Co-developed by Christian Church Homes of Northern California and
Visalia Senior Housing II, the 60-unit project affirms the City’s
goal of providing housing in and near the downtown.
Numerous funding sources were assembled to make Oak Meadows a reality.
The U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal
Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program provided $4.9 million
and $250,000 forgivable loans, respectively. The City’s redevelopment
agency donated the land for the site and administrative services
and added a $900,000 loan to bridge a gap in financing. Not including
land and design costs, total project construction costs were $5.2
million.
The project embodies many of the challenges that local communities
may face in making infill development a reality. Raising the first
floor of the building three feet to meet HUD flood disaster requirements
and a last minute increase in the prevailing wage requirement presented
design and financial challenges that required the City to provide
an additional monetary infusion to keep the project afloat.
Sited on a former parking lot, the project also had to replace
lost parking while providing for the parking needs of residents
and visitors to the Senior Center which is located on the same block.
Subterranean parking proved to be financially infeasible, so surface
parking had to be squeezed onto the existing parcel. Given that
many senior residents will not drive, the City reduced the parking
limits in half to 1/2 space per unit. (A nearby, 100 unit affordable
senior housing project is only using 17 parking units).
"Oak Meadows will provide affordable housing to seniors, keep
development off valuable farmland, and bring more activity to our
downtown, said Visalia Mayor Jesús Gamboa. "It will
continue our downtown renaissance."
The City is also trying to encourage new infill housing in existing
downtown historic buildings that currently have vacant second and/or
third floors. Through a Great Valley Center grant, the City developed
a financial feasibility analysis refurbishing existing abandoned
second floor housing to one downtown building. The City hopes to
have a demonstration project complete within a year.
Construction will also begin on a new pedestrian plaza in the heart
of downtown later this year.
For more information, contact Sharon Sheltzer, Redevelopment Consultant,
Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Visalia, (559) 713-4414,
ssheltzer@ci.visalia.ca.us.
New program increases accessibility of new
homes
The City Council recently approved a new program to enhance access
to new homes for seniors and the disabled. The "Visit-Able
Home Program" requires three simple modifications to basic
single family home construction: widening room entrances, adding
additional wall backing to support grab bars, and providing a zero
step entrance to the house.
Developed in cooperation with the South Valley Center for Independent
Living, the Tulare-Kings Building Industry Association, and the
Visalia Building Division, these improvements add little or no cost
to construction. Builders adopting these standards can market their
homes using the "Certified Visitable" logo.
For more information, contact Dennis Lehman, Development Services
Manager, (559) 713-4495.
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