New residential subdivisions planned for Porterville
Smee Builders leads the way
As far as new homes being developed in the city, Mike Reed said Smee Builders is leading the way.
“Smee Builders is the major builder in Porterville,” said Reed, the city’s public works director.
Reed said the Porterville-based custom homebuilder is currently working on phase 1 of its 192-lot subdivision on Mathew Street called Summit Estates II, which he said is roughly 80 lots. Reed said the city should see those lots during this fiscal year — July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.
Reed said Summit Estates II will consist of several more phases, and noted that the whole subdivision should be fully developed within the next three to five years.
“There are a lot of steps that will need to take place before the lots can actually be sold,” Reed said.
Additionally, Reed said Smee Builders just recently got a map approved for what he calls Trooper Terrace, which he said is on the east side of Westwood Street, north of the Porter Slough. He said 17 lots are planned for that development. He noted, however, that a lot of work still needs to be done.
“That schedule is lagging behind the schedule of this bigger tentative subdivision map,” said Reed, referring to Summit Estates II.
Nevertheless, Reed said it is very likely that Trooper Terrace will be under construction and building permits may be issued this fiscal year.
Porterville has been lagging behind other cities in terms of new homes being built. From January 2015 through the end of 2016, the city issued just 75 permits for new homes. By contrast, the city of Tulare issued 350 permits in 2016 alone.
As far as other builders in the city, Reed said no one is at the stage of Smee Builders.
“There’s a lot of subdivisions that have been approved for quite some time and you hear conversations about builders interested in picking them up, but they never seemed to gain traction,” Reed said.
Reed said a big reason those subdivisions never gained traction is because most are located on hillsides on the east side of
town where there is an abundant of bad soil and a lack of infrastructure readily available such as sewer, water and storm drains.
“There is a lot of upfront costs,” Reed said, adding that he doesn’t think the city is strong enough yet to generate a market in the hillsides. “Hopefully it gets there, and I think if the hillside developments are done correctly it could be a very nice amenity to Porterville.”
Reed noted that there are a few homes being built in what he calls New Horizons, which he said is off of Springville Avenue, west of Indiana.
“There are some vacant
lots up by the river being built on as I recall,” Reed said.
So far this year, Reed said the city has issued 29 new residential permits. In terms of the future of home building in the city, Reed said things are looking bright.
“What Smee Builders is doing is going to generate a higher number here shortly,” Reed said, adding, “This fiscal year we are going to see a higher number of building permits for new residential homes.”
City Manager Bill Zigler said Smee Builders is busy in the City of Lindsay as well, currently working on a 40-lot subdivision in the city’s Autumn Hills Estates, which is located in the northwestern part of town.
Zigler said two lots are already framed up and noted that Smee is scheduled to stop by the city next week to get three more building permits.
“The street has been cut already, curb and gutter are installed and so they are moving forward, they are not holding back, they are going to get it done,” Zigler said, noting that the smallest home is a little over 1,600 square feet.
Zigler said the city is especially excited that Smee Builders is building larger mid-and-upper-level housing, something he said the city has been lacking.
“There is certainly a need for affordable housing, but in Lindsay we build more than our
fair share,” Zigler said, adding, “Our goal is to have economic diversity so that we have people from all different economic spectrums here.”
Zigler said he believes once the 40-lot subdivision is complete, more professionals that work in Lindsay will start to live in Lindsay, too.
“The biggest employer in town is the Lindsay Unified School District with over 400 employees and only very few of them live here,” Zigler said, adding that most commute from other towns primarily because the housing stock they would want doesn’t currently exist in Lindsay. “So we believe this is a step in the right direction to start attracting our professionals.”