F.C. Council Likes Plan to Fund Housing

Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever told the News-Press in an interview yesterday that he's cautiously optimistic his carefully-crafted plan to subsidize development of a senior affordable housing structure on W. Broad Street will work.

Last week, the Falls Church City Council granted three required approvals for the Falls Church Housing Corporation (FCHC) to construct a scaled-back mixed use five story building just west of the W&OD Bike Trail overpass on W. Broad. By requiring a substantial reduction in the size of the project from that originally proposed, the Council said it would step up to help fill the funding gap created by the downsizing.

According to Carol Jackson, executive director of the FCHC, the smaller plan, reduced from 70 to 48 senior housing apartments, will leave her organization $1 million short of what it needs to pay for building the project.

McKeever laid out a creative way for the City to accept responsibility for that funding gap at Tuesday's City Council work session.

Instead of the FCHC buying the land for the project from the Falls Church Volunteer Firefighters, as planned, the City would buy the land, instead, McKeever proposed. That would be done by utilizing and supplementing resources currently in the City's Affordable Housing Fund for that acquisition. The asking price is currently $870,000.

Then, McKeever said, the City would lease the land back to the FCHC at $1 a year until its construction loan was fully repaid, at which time the FCHC would begin to pay back all that back, and, under this plan, the City would also hike its annual contribution to the FCHC from $50,000 to $100,000 to help cover the building construction cost.

"There is still much more work and much more information needed, and loops to close, before we report back to the City Council on Jan. 31," McKeever said. "But we are moving in a good direction."

He said that although members of the Volunteer Firefighters were present to hear the proposal at Tuesday's work session, they did not comment and have yet to be approached about their willingness to go along with the plan. They're currently under contract to sell the parcel to the FCHC.

He said it also remains to be established just what it will take to make sure the resources are in the Affordable Housing Fund and a more careful look at the construction cost gap needs to be taken to see if there are ways to lower costs.

"We have looked at the construction pro forma's and agree that there is a substantial cost gap right now," McKeever said.

The original proposed construction project brought by the FCHC to the City Council last summer called for 70 units and would have been financially self-sufficient.

But the Council, with pressure from neighboring residents, required the project to downsize three times before agreeing to it, even after the Planning Commission had OK'd a somewhat larger version. Each downsizing left the project with a larger and larger funding deficit.

If all goes well, McKeever said, the Council would approve a resolution to enable its subsidy plan at its Feb. 14 public business meeting, giving the FCHC time to apply for federal tax credits by the March 11 filing deadline.

At Tuesday's meeting, Councilman David Snyder said, "This will give us a significant value added to the City for little public investment."

Jackson said, "After all we've been through, what we have is still the first new construction for affordable housing ever in the City of Falls Church."