News

City OKs 80 units of affordable housing on Sugarloaf

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 7, 2022

The city will see a development of 80 units of desperately needed affordable housing on Sugarloaf Road if the Housing Assistance Corp. completes the plan that won City Council approval Thursday night.

The HAC wants to build 60 apartments and 20 single-family homes on 19 acres in the Apple Ridge development between Sugarloaf Road and East Prince Road. HAC, the affordable housing nonprofit agency that has built 370 apartments and 200 single-family homes in the past 34 years, won a rezoning to allow the project from R-15 Medium Density Residential to PRD-CZD Planned Residential Development Conditional Zoning District.
The rent for the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments would range from $422 to $1,172, including utilities, depending on size of the units. Homeowners would help HAC construction crews build the houses through the agency’s Self Help program. The homes would be 1,100 to 1,200 square feet and cost $229,000 including the lot cost, less than half the cost of a new home in the private market, HAC Executive Director Ashlyn McCoy said.
The Apple Ridge development is one of three projects seeking tax-credit financing approval from the N.C. Housing Finance Agency. Also vying for the housing agency support are the 78-unit White Pine Villas senior housing development at 2620 Chimney Rock Road and the proposed 60-unit Hawkins Pointe development at 714 Sixth Avenue West.

Council member Jennifer Hensley asked that the council send a letter to the Housing Finance Agency in support. Mayor Barbara Volk directed the staff to draft a letter to the agency endorsing the project.