Willis considers plan for downtown housing
Willis leaders are considering an ordinance that would allow developers to build multiple single-family homes downtown that developers say would boost home ownership and bring more businesses to the city.
There have been few new residential projects in neighborhoods along Texas 75 in the downtown area, with recent developments being duplexes, said Willis Community Development Director Jeff Cross. Most homes in the area were built in the 1940s and 1960s, he said.
Developers are limited to what can be built on downtown property, choosing between one single-family home or a duplex, according to documents provided by Cameron Johnson, owner of Conroe-based Bluechip Homes LLC. On Tuesday, Johnson asked city leaders to create an ordinance that would allow developers to buy property and build multiple single-family homes.
“It was interesting enough for (City Council) to have questions,” Cross said. Council members were mainly interested in whether the ordinance would bring permanent residents downtown.
Johnson told Hearst Newspapers it would bring not only new homeowners but also new businesses to downtown in the city of nearly 9,000 residents.
“The whole purpose of putting (this) through an ordinance instead of just getting each project approved, one by one, is so that other (builders and developers) can do it too,” Johnson said, noting his related work experience in other cities in Oklahoma. “I’ve seen firsthand what it can do to a city. We could see Willis turn around pretty quick, (with) some really cool … unique, interesting developments that promote single-family homes and homeownership.”
The single-family homes would be priced from $180,000 to $250,000 and built closer to each other, with some having a garage attached and an alleyway for parking to remove the need to park cars along the street, according to renderings provided by Johnson. The current average value of a house in Willis is more than $290,000, according to Zillow’s home values index.
What Johnson calls a “downtown zoning district” is not a new concept, he said.
“Downtown zoning districts are not hard to find,” according to documents provided by Johnson. “It is a very common way for cities to incentivize development of downtown areas. The reason for this is that most downtown land was platted hundreds of years ago, as is the case here in Willis. This does not allow for an easy development process to be able to do anything different with the land than what the developer intended 150 years ago.”
Some officials have voiced concerns over whether the city’s current infrastructure could handle a zoning project like this.
Officials were under the impression that the entire downtown area would be redeveloped all at once, he said.
The development could create a high demand for water and sewer connections along properties that don’t have access to existing systems, Johnson stated in documents provided. The developers would pay to have new utility systems built, he said. For properties that do have access to services, developers would pay a fee for water connections and an additional fee to help fund utility lines that would be installed in the future, he said.
The amount for the fees is still undetermined.
Cross said the planning process to write the ordinance would be a six-month process.
“You’re talking about a lot of work to build a zoning district like that,” Cross said.
Cross said City Council has already put him to work. He is currently reviewing similar ordinances from other cities, he said.
Johnson said he feels that he is capable, with help from the city and developers, of making sure the ordinance is done right. He and his partner, entrepreneur Christian Waldo, will be working with Cross.
“It’s going to be a little difficult to make sure everything’s nailed down … and I think we’re very capable of doing that,” he said. “I think everything that we have so far is really close. We’re just going to need some minor tweaking.”
City Council is expected to meet in late March for the fist reading of the ordinance, he said.