BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Differing interpretations of the city’s building codes is stalling a proposed housing development in Starke and potentially endangering its funding.
Christopher Crowder introduced himself to the commission May 3 as chairman of the board of Sandcastles Foundation in Melbourne, Florida — a nonprofit that builds affordable and workforce housing.
The foundation has successfully applied for $6 million in funding from the Florida Housing Finance Corporation to construct a housing development on Westmoreland Road behind the schools. These are federal dollars distributed by the state.
Guidelines for the program include paying prevailing wages to subcontractors, and Crowder said they like to use local subcontractors and create jobs.
The plan is to build 25 single-family homes with similar site plans to provide affordable housing. The four-bedroom, two-bath homes would also have an oversized garage.
Because Sandcastles is a nonprofit, Crowder said the $6 million received comes as a non-amortizing, 0% interest loan that will be forgiven if they maintain the property in accordance with the guidelines for a period of 20 years. Beyond that, they must agree to maintain it for an additional 30 years.
“So, for all intents and purposes, this will be 50 years that our organization will own these homes and rent them out as affordable housing,” he said.
Based on the latest data, their target market would be households making $36,000 to $40,000 a year.
“A lot of times that’s starting teacher salaries, those are starting police officer salaries. And so, a lot of the folks that you can kind of benefit from this housing will be the people that run the communities that we’re in,” Crowder said.
In addition to the housing, they will maintain the private road and a housing office. The office will host adult and financial literacy programs for their residents.
“We believe that those programs are essential to families, especially to financial management,” said Crowder, who is a bankruptcy attorney by profession. “That’s sort of what led me to this is that I file bankruptcies every day for families, and a lot of them is because they can’t afford the housing that they live in.”
While his nonprofit didn’t find opportunities in his own community, they have found opportunities around the state.
“Our study found that there was a high need in this community for it, and Starke is actually a lot like a town that I grew up next to,” he said. “Leavenworth, Kansas, is very similar to Starke in many ways, similar downtown, also home to a correctional facility. Actually 14 correctional facilities. But it just reminded me of where I grew up, so I was happy to come in here and do this.”
Whether he will be able to do this remains to be seen. While initially Sandcastle received positive feedback from a former manager and city staff, Crowder said he is now being told by the city attorney they would have to subdivide the land to build 25 homes.
Ultimately, it’s up to the commission to decide, Crowder said.
He explained Sandcastles is not opposed to subdividing or rezoning the property, but steps could have been taken earlier in the process had they known. Now, however, they are running into deadlines
They began work on the development last July and hoped to have approval from the city’s engineer so they could begin to sitework in November or December. Their plans were delayed but were eventually delivered to the city in late October or early November. Then they were lost in staff turnovers. Once they were finally sent to the city engineer, they were held up another six weeks.
“As these programs work with the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, they do want to see them moving forward. They want to see us get to shovel-ready states, and if not, we suffer penalties or they can pull the funding,” Crowder said, adding they have deadlines coming up in June. They are concerned any additional delays will cost more time than they must get started.
City Attorney Clay Martin advised commissioners not to comment since the matter could be coming before them for a ruling in a quasi-judicial hearing down the road. Martin said Crowder had also threatened litigation, although Crowder denied that, but said he has tried to argue his points as he would in a judicial or quasi-judicial hearing.
According to Martin, the planner the city works with at the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council agrees with the his interpretation of the codes.
“Nobody’s disputing the nobility of the cause, but as this is proposed, our code is not being complied with, our land development code,” Martin said.
The shortest process would be for the board to meet in a quasi-judicial setting to approve the preliminary subdivision plat, he said.
According to Crowder, it would take approximately two months to prepare the plat for approval, and he is running out of time. He was disappointed when he could not get Martin to speak to his interpretation of the code.
“This is not the proper forum to be arguing legal matters,” Martin said.
“This is the problem,” Crowder said. “I’m just asking to talk.
In other business, the commission moved its May 17 meeting to May 24 to allow for time to advertise second readings of the redistricting and water and wastewater rate ordinances.
