Council Approves Workforce Housing Project On City Property

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The Mesquite City Council stuck to its strategic priorities last week when it came time to decide what to do with two city-owned parcels along Hafen Lane.

Citing workforce housing as its number one strategic planning goal, council members selected an affordable housing project for one of the parcels, and a real estate swap on the other, which would pave the way for more child daycare services in the city.

In a meeting held Tuesday, Oct.13, the Council heard competing proposals on future uses of the two parcels: one located at 830 W. Hafen Lane, which included the old ARCON building; and the other an empty lot adjacent to the west at 850 W. Hafen Lane.

A proposed exchange
The first presentation was given by Dale Rust, Administrative Board Chairman for the Mesquite First Baptist Church.

Rust explained that, as the community has grown, so has the First Baptist congregation.
“We have actually outgrown our current building,” Rust said. “So we have been looking for land where we could build, or for an existing building, that would provide additional space for future growth.”

Rust said that he had recently heard that the City was wanting to establish space for a daycare facility. He realized that there might be an opportunity for the church in that.

“It dawned on me that our church building would be a great facility for (a day care),” Rust said. “That’s where the idea of a possible exchange with the city for the ARCON building originated.”
Rust said that he approached city staff and found them open to the idea. An appraisal was done on both properties which showed them almost equivalent in value.

The one request that the Church had, should the swap go forward, would be that the City participate 50 percent in the re-roofing of the old building. A roofing estimate on the ARCON building showed a total of $50,000 from each party would achieve that needed work.

“We see the exchange as a win-win for both parties where the city can facilitate an efficient startup of a daycare, and we receive a larger footprint and an exciting expansion project,” Rust said.

Workforce housing at last!
The second proposal was in regards to the vacant five acre parcel just west of the ARCON building. Making a presentation on this parcel was Phil Brewer of the Nevada Rural Housing Authority (NRHA).

The proposal was to build a 96-unit affordable housing complex on the site. At full buildout, the complex would include six apartment buildings with 1 to 3 bedroom units; also a leasing center /clubhouse offering community amenities including laundry, computer lab, meeting space and exercise facilities with outdoor playground and several pavilion areas.

Brewer said that NRHA had also designed expanded plans if the seven acre parcel adjacent to the city property were to become available. This would allow for a much larger complex including multifamily units, senior housing and a few for-sale townhomes on site.

The NRHA had entered into negotiations with the owner of the privately-held parcel, Brewer said. But as the NRHA began the process of acquiring it, it came under contract with another buyer.
“So we kind of hit the proverbial wall for the moment on the expanded plans,” Brewer said.

However, the NRHA was poised to carry out its plans for the smaller city-owned parcel if the Council approved it, Brewer said.
The cost for the smaller project would be around $25 million which would be paid for through NRHA funds, Brewer said.

The NRHA would also continue to own, manage and operate the property in perpetuity after its completion, Brewer said.
“If NRHA builds it, we build it to own it and operate it and we don’t have any intention of flipping any property whatsoever,” Brewer said.

Brewer clarified that the NRHA proposal did not include the ARCON building property. Thus, the exchange between the church and the city could still take place next door, if the housing project were to be approved.

Charter school proposal
The third presentation proposed to use both of the city parcels, as well as the seven-acre privately held property to the west, to develop a new Pre-K through 12 charter school complex.

PTAA charter school Superintendant Shubham Pandey presented the plan to bring a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) school to the community.
The school would be considered a public school, chartered through the state. Thus there would be no cost to students and their families to attend it.

Pandey said that PTAA would first renovate the existing ARCON building into a pre-K/daycare facility which could be opened by the beginning of the 2021 school year in August. The K-12 facilities would be built on the other parcels in the years following, with full operations projected to be in effect by 2024.

The high school program at PTAA would allow students to earn up to 60 hours of free college credits during their high school years, thus earning an associates degree before high school graduation.

The school would also work with a local governing board to create internship programs with industry partners to fill the local workforce needs or that of a targeted future workforce, Pandey said.

At full enrollment, the K-12 portion of the school could take a maximum of 550 kids, Pandey said.
Council member Brian Wursten expressed concern of what this school would do to the current public school system.

“It would provide school choice to local families,” Pandey said. “Right now you don’t have that here in this community. School choice will always come with what happens to the current process. But it also makes things more competitive.”

During public comment on this matter, VVHS Principal Riley Frei pointed out that there is a lot of inconsistency within the charter school movement.
“There are very good charters and there also a significant number of them that fail,” Frei said.
Frei urged the Council to do some research, hold public hearings and workshops, and do some due diligence on the effectiveness of this proposed charter school model in Mesquite.

Frei also pointed out that a lot of work is already in process to tie the efforts at VVHS with greater offerings at the local CSN campus.

“Councilman Gault and others of us on the Workforce Development and Mesquite Works groups are already engaged in conversations right now to bring more workforce training to our schools,” Frei said.

Frei added that about a third of the local students are college bound after high school. “That is the target for these schools and if we start picking some of those kids off and pulling them out at an early stage, what does that do to the schools down the road? That is an important thing for us to think about.”

The decision
Councilman George Gault urged the council to keep its main priorities in mind.
“I think this really needs to be about workforce housing and daycare, the two things that really impact our workforce right now,” Gault said.

Councilman George Rapson agreed. “I want to remind everybody that back in January we identified the city’s top priorities, we called them our pillars,” Rapson said. “Workforce housing was our number one priority. A charter school did not even show up on the radar screen.”

Councilwoman Sandra Ramaker talked about the bond cap money that the City had given up, year after year, to help with rural housing projects throughout the state. During that time none of that funding had been used locally for workforce housing.

“I just think this is a great use of all that funding that we have given up in the fact that we are actually going to finally see something developed with the money that we have given up,” Ramaker said.

Gault made the motion to approve the workforce housing project and the real estate exchange with First Baptist Church. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. Councilwoman Annie Black abstained from the vote as she has been advising and serving on the local board of the PTAA project.

Click HERE to see larger rendering of Hafen Village.