Discussions are underway with Charleston’s Land Reuse Agency to build more new, affordable homes in the area

Charleston, W.V.

They met for the first one of the two community input meetings organized by Charleston Land Rezen Agency (CLRA), not only to learn about the new construction incentive program, but also gave voice to their concerns over the needs and obstacles of housing redevelopment.

Wednesday’s meeting was a developer roundateable event to discuss the initiative. John Butterworth, a city planner for Charleston city, stated more about the incentive program that he said that he would provide a lot of new opportunities for the construction of new, inexpensive houses in the area.

“We are providing $ 35,000 for the development of new single family homes within the city, and the land reuse is an additional encouragement of $ 15,000 for a lot of development owned by the agency, so the total is $ 50,000 for the development of new single family homes within the city, so the total is $ 50,000.”

He said that he is also working on an application for the state for the Build WV Housing Development Tax Credit District. This designation will allow for new construction and redevelopment tax encouragement to encourage investment in the city.

Wednesday’s incident included a presentation about the regional housing study by Bowen National Research which was held last year and funded by a regional economic development organization Advantage Valley.

The study found that there were a total of 621 available houses in the existing housing supply throughout the region, a availability rate that represents only 0.4% homes. In comparison, the availability rate of healthy and well -balanced housing markets is between 2.0% and 3.0%.


In Kanawa County, the study found that the total number of total available housing units was the highest of all ten counties represented in the study in 269 available homes.

Bowen National reported that there are 57 sites in the region that were identified as potential future residential places, which he said that such sites are necessary for the expansion of the housing market.

Butterworth said that many houses across the city are getting more old, definitely need to be new.

“We have obtained an old housing stock, we need to build new, safe, affordable homes for working families and individuals in Charlston city and this is really where the land reuses the agency focuses on its efforts, which is getting assets for redevelopment of single family, but remain in the neighborhood, but also increasing quality.

After the establishment of the land re -use agency in 2019 by the city of Charlston, the organization is working to achieve much for future real estate opportunities to achieve a lot of empty and left throughout the city.

Butterworth said that Wednesday’s meeting was particularly moved towards people working in real estate, development and construction that could help bring the new vision of residential redevelopment in the capital city. He said that his response is a missing piece to the puzzle in achieving a fully ongoing redevelopment initiative.

“We need to listen to our development and real estate community, we need to know what are the challenges and we need to know what they think they think is a possible solution, so we can work to bring those types of resources to the table, without that dialogue, I do not know what we are going to be successful, so what we are here today,” said the butterfort. “

The next public input session of the agency has been scheduled at the Roosevelt Community Center at 5:30 pm next Wednesday, February 28. This will provide an opportunity to learn about the current work of Clra and provide feedback about the priorities of the neighborhood.

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