It’s been a long time coming: The Sierra Flats affordable housing project has been in the works since Carson City first asked for project proposals in 2019 to turn a vacant piece of city-owned land into affordable housing on the corner of Airport and Butti.
The project has seen its fair share of setbacks including COVID issues, lumber shortages after the West Coast’s largest lumber mill burned down, Trump-era tax cuts limiting funding for affordable housing, and more.
They were granted extensions, and finally broke ground in 2022.
Now, Sierra Flats has officially begun welcoming its first residents, with the first phase dubbed Sierra Flats Senior at 94% capacity.
The senior living portion of the development has 75 units, and household incomes range from 30% to 50% Area Median Income (AMI). The AMI for Carson City is estimated at around $71,800, 30% of which would be around $21,300 per year.
Keeping affordable housing developments capped by an AMI is important because it means that prices do not fluctuate based on housing or rental prices in the area but rather, how much people are actually making.
According to Missi Pollender, vice president of Weststates Property Management, the waiting list for the Sierra Flats Senior portion has a waiting list of over 150 prospective residents.
The second phase of the project is for family housing, which is capped at 60% AMI. While that portion of the project finishes up, Pollender says they are pre-leasing apartments now which offers one, two and three bedroom units.
Mayor Lori Bagwell has been a proponent of affordable housing and this development project since its inception, and said she looks forward to more developers coming forward with project proposals to create similar projects on vacant property.
“I’m excited the project has come to fruition, as many residents were in need of this housing,” Bagwell said. “I’m looking forward to hearing ideas from other developer partners in the future on unique cases like this.”
Sierra Flats is located at 3320 Butti Way, and their walk-in hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. They can be reached at (775) 434 7016 for more information.
Check out the phase two job site live here.
