Truckee Town Council to open bidding on land sale for more affordable housing
sjordan@sierrasun.com
The Truckee Town Council has taken another step toward bringing affordable housing here.
Discussion at the council’s Tuesday meeting revolved around the sale of additional land located on Rue Ivy Street, where the Frishman Hollow development currently sits.
As Town Attorney Alan Morris put it, “Tonight is all about action.”
The action in question had to do with a new state law effective this year about buying and selling land. Instead of the town choosing a buyer to sell land to directly, the town now has two options. It can put the land up for competitive bidding, or post a notice of availability to the state.
The staff opted for the former. A 30-day bidding process is currently being drafted.
As Morris stated, land purchase talks have been ongoing since last year. In fact, the developer of the Frishman Hollow, Pacific West Communities Inc., was in talks to purchase the land from the town.
“They approached us last year and said they would be interested in buying the rest of the town-owned land for the purpose of developing more affordable housing,” Morris said. “We had a lot of discussions and they went off and applied for a low-interest loan from the state to build affordable housing and got approved for that.
“Up until New Year’s Eve, we would of been able to just sell them the land, but the law has changed,” he added.
One of the reasons staff was in favor for choosing the competitive bid was the site was already intended to be built as affordable housing. There is approximately 4.87 acres adjacent to the Frishman Hollow site that could potentially be turned into 50-80 more units of affordable housing. Frishman Hollow currently has 32 units. Town Manager Jeff Loux said the plan from Pacific West Communities includes new development that could bring in around 68 units.
“The one applicant, or potential bidder we are aware of, has indicated if they end up being able to buy the property, they would like to break ground in May,” Loux said. “So, I think the more we can do to expedite the sale, the better.”
Sean Jordan is a staff writer for the Sierra Sun and can be reached at sjordan@sierrasun.com.
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