By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph needs more housing. Buchanan County is helping.
The county is moving toward approving the sale of land near The Shoppes at North Village for a multi-family housing apartment complex.
“That will be the first apartment complex, new apartment complex, in St. Joe in about 21 years,” says St. Joseph City Manager, Mike Schumacher, who says plans call for a 178-unit complex.
“It’s a large apartment complex, first-class apartment complex with all the modern amenities if you will,” Schumacher says.
Schumacher acknowledges residential growth hasn’t been strong.
“While other communities around us, it sure has been,” Schumacher says. “We spend a lot of time asking why? And I don’t know that we have great answers to the why. When we’ve met with different developers from the region, the answer that I get anyway is we haven’t really thought about the St. Joe market.”
Schumacher says a lack of housing has hurt business employee recruitment, which has hurt population growth. Schumacher says city is working with developers to streamline the permitting process and considering incentives to lure them to the city.
“The population growth aspect of this is absolutely critical for the health of St. Joe, whether that’s our school systems, whether it’s the city of St. Joe, we have to focus on quality housing for our existing folks and to attract new folks and growth,” Schumacher says. “That is absolutely key to the success of St. Joe and I believe that 100%.”
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