At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Jerome Township Board of Trustees got an update on economic development in the county.
As part of that discussion, the trustees questioned the housing options in the county. Trustee Joe Craft said there are few if any affordable housing options in the county.
“It is a huge issue,” Union County Economic Development Director Eric Phillips said.
He said that in the past it was not considered in the economic development equation, but recently the thought has changed. He said housing affordability impacts workforce availability.
“We need affordable housing,” Phillips said. “We need housing options for people that live here. If we don’t have these options, we aren’t going to grow our workforce.”
Phillips said unemployment in the county is 4.1 percent, about half a percent less than the state. He has said in the past that many businesses already struggle to recruit new employees.
“We have talked before about workforce development, education and training, but if these people don’t have a place to live to come to the area to be trained or learn, (it doesn’t help),” Craft said.
Phillips said that at one point recently there were just 31 homes available in the Marysville zip code.
“When you think about that, that’s scary that we only have 31 homes up for sale,” Phillips said, adding that people were getting 120 percent of asking price.
He did explain that last year there were about 420 permits issued for construction of single-family homes. Through June 30, the county issued 286 permits.
“This is on pace to be 600,” Phillips said, calling the increase “pretty significant.”
Trustee Ron Rhodes said that the number is nice, but questioned how many would be affordable for many people.
“That’s what we are trying to keep in mind,” Rhodes said.
He explained that most young couples cannot afford a $300,000 home, even with help.
Phillips also explained that in a recent analysis of apartments in Union County found a 1.6 percent vacancy rate, calling it “basically zero.”
“So we have no apartments available for people moving in,” Phillips said.
He said people are moving in. Phillips said Union County is the fastest growing county in the state. He said that as of 2012, the county was the third wealthiest in the sate.
Phillips said that over the next 30 years, 90 percent of the growth in Union County will occur between Jerome and Marysville.
“So there is more coming, and we just have to grow correctly,” Phillips said. “We have to think about these things going forward. Once you develop a site, it is going to be like that forever.”
Craft said that as a community and a country, we need to “rethink” how we live and commute.
“Housing is something we have got to work on and think forward how we want to grow from a residential standpoint,” Phillips said.
Also during the meeting the trustees set a public hearing for a pair of new neighborhoods to be built in the Jerome Village development. The two neighborhoods will be bordered by homes that start at $750,000 and range to $2 million.