City extends Mesa Heights boundary to include future apartment complex
Land in area of arizona ave, 18th st annexed for project
The Yuma City Council extended the boundary of the Mesa Heights Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area to incorporate newly annexed land planned for development of multi-family residential homes. The initial proposal calls for an 80-unit apartment complex.
By unanimous vote, the council amended the boundary of the Mesa Heights NRSA, adding 15.66 acres east of Arizona Avenue, north of 18th Street.
In 2015, the council approved the Mesa Heights Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area Plan, which guides the use of Community Development Block Grant funds and establishes funding priorities for projects in the area.
Part of the goals is to bring more housing into the neighborhood and encourage in-fill construction on vacant land in the interior of the neighborhood, between existing homes, as well as along Arizona Avenue.
The plan also identifies a need for rental opportunities and suggested existing vacant land could attract new development to the neighborhood. The most visible “accomplishment” is the Mesa Heights Apartments on Arizona Avenue, which consists of 58 units of affordable rental housing, according to a staff report.
The Mesa Heights report noted that the city’s Neighborhood Services has also helped in the rehabilitation of 26 single-family homes with more than $1 million of CDBG and other grant funds, and nine new single-family homes, with a value of $1.1 million, have been constructed with private funds on infill lots throughout the neighborhood.
The council, on the same day, also adopted an ordinance authorizing the annexation of 23 acres, with a portion to be considered for this multifamily project.
“The activity that has been proposed for that land is very compatible with what we’re doing in the Mesa Heights neighborhood and part of that Mesa Heights plan,” said Rhonda Leejames, assistant director of planning and neighborhood services.
Staff recommended amending the neighborhood boundaries. By bringing the newly annexed plan into the Mesa Heights
Neighborhood boundaries as well, the proposed multifamily housing can be a part of that Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area and the opportunities that it offers.
Currently, there isn’t a timeframe as to when construction of the project will start. Lee-james explained that the developer has funding applications pending with the state as well as other funding applications.
The developer plans to seek tax credit financing similar to that used to build the Mesa Height Apartments on Arizona Avenue. Investment funding for this existing low-income housing came primarily from private equity raised through the sale of Low Income Housing Tax Credits.
“It will probably be sometime this summer before they know if their entire funding package gets together,” Lee-james said. “If that all comes together, then I would say it would be toward the end of the year that they would know if the entire package is secured, and then we would begin to know about an actual construction timeline.”
She added: “By being part of a Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area, that will earn them bonus points for some of the funding applications that they have pending.”
Bruce and Linda D. Butcher Living Trust, the owner of the property located on South Arizona Avenue, between 17th and 18th streets, stretching east to the railroad tracks, intends to clean up the parcels and then sell them for construction of the multifamily apartment complex.
The owner requested annexation of the property at 1749 S. Arizona Ave. and the southeast corner of Riley Avenue, into Yuma to obtain city utilities, police and fire services. Currently, much of the property is vacant, with some serving as a junkyard.
The annexed area totaling 23 acres consists of two parcels, the adjacent right-of-way along Arizona Avenue, Riley Avenue, 18th Street and railroad, and two small parcels owned by the federal government.