On Tuesday, leadership from the Hillpointe development company and local officials held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site of the new Pointe Grand Sageview multi-family development, which will bring 324 new 2-bed, 2-bath apartments to Carson City.
The development is defined as “attainable housing,” and while no figures were discussed at the time for what rent would be, Pointe Grand’s online literature defines it as “market-rate housing for households that earn too much to qualify for income-restricted housing.”
Since the recession, Carson City has long been behind in building to keep up with population growth demands, which has increased housing costs in the city considerably.
Earlier this year, housing was revealed as the community’s number one priority. A major concern identified by service providers is the “missing middle” — residents who earn too much to qualify for housing subsidies, but too little to afford market-rate rent.
Increasing housing inventory, especially in smaller, more dense capacities, was determined to be an important factor in creating more opportunities for first time homeowners and families who want to purchase single-family homes but have been unable.
However, when it was first announced, the Sageview development drew controversy, as it is being developed on a floodplain near protected wetlands, in what many residents said they believed to be protected open space.
When asked what developers were utilizing to mitigate any floodplain concerns, Hillpointe representatives at the time did not have a specific answer, but said they would send the technical information at a later time.
However, Pamela Thompson, Hillpointe’s director of external affairs, added, “We are very sensitive to the environment in any community that we [build] in, and we do make sure, because we own and manage, so we’re long term. We don’t want anything to happen to our properties.”
Following Thompson, City Manager Glen Martel spoke to the gathered crowd and thanked Hillpointe for being a partner to Carson City.
“Something of this size, this complexity never goes easily, so thank you to everyone involved … it’s taken us a long time to get to where we need to be, but thank you for being a part of that,” said Martel.
He added that Hillpointe is helping improve the city’s drainage around the site through stormwater drainage.
“The west side of this [site] will be rerouted down to the south side of the waste water treatment facility, increasing our ability to have a floodplain.”
Thompson said that they anticipate the site to be finished in 15 months.
