Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Affordable Housing Is Lacking

There is a serious lack of affordable housing in Clark County.

This, Al Lynch, with the Alliance Insurance Group, told the Clark County Industrial Council at its regular meeting Thursday, March 16.

Lynch said it's hard for industry to find housing for its employees, but the CCIC is in the initial stages of addressing this problem.

A panel is being formed made up of CCIC members, industrial human resource people, the Clark County Homebuilder's Association and bankers to see what can be done.

This group will address the needs of industries, determine the type of housing most needed based on income and the kind of houses that could be built within the price ranges of these incomes.

Dub Wingfield, an area contractor, said lots within the city limits of Arkadelphia cost $20,000 or more and this makes it hard to stay in the $70,000 price range when building a house.

It costs about $55 per square foot to build a house. To stay in the $70,000 range, a house would have to be 1,100 square feet and this is too small for most people.

The problem with building outside the city limits, he said, is one of sewage disposal. Law requires at least three acres for a septic system to be installed, and one acre if a rock-plant system is used.

But, he said, both of these systems are expensive for the homeowner to have installed and maintained.

Houses need to be built where existing sewer lines are when possible, Wingfield said.

Land prices are still a major factor in the cost of building houses, he said.

Local insurance agent Austin Wingfield, Lynch said, has looked into the problem of developing lots within the city limits, and a meeting will be scheduled to see if a solution can be found.

According to Austin Wingfield, part of the problem is the standard city lot is 50-feet wide and there are ordinances on the book restricting how close building can be done to the street. He added, there are a lot of vacant lots in town which can be utilized once this problem is overcome.

Dub Wingfield told the council there used to be speculator developers who built subdivisions using one basic floor plan. They knew what the cost of building would be as the options for home buyers didn't affect construction costs much.

Now, though, he said, people don't want their homes to look alike and this has created a custom homebuilding business. Contractors build to the design specs of the customer, which increases the costs.

CCIC President Brown Hardman said housing costs have always been high in Clark County and suggested the possibility of building houses in the southern part of the county in Gurdon.

Land prices, he said, are less than in the Arkadelphia area and building in Gurdon would benefit the entire county.