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State denies funding for ReVere Homes

Last Updated on February 22, 2018 by cassnetwork

A second application for state assistance for the redevelopment of Logansport’s blight elimination lots has been rejected by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

The city received notification from Crestline, the Indianapolis developer that has worked with the city to produce the McKinley School project, that it would not be funded. The city received a similar rejection last year, based in part on a scoring system that penalized the application because of the number of lots in a “food desert” in the city. That problem was rectified in the current application and the city council committed additional dollars for curbing and sidewalks on the lots.

Dan Hubbard of Crestline advised the city that scoring of the application had not been released  yet today.

“It’s disappointing because of the long hours and work that went in to not just this application but the previous one,” Mayor Dave Kitchell said this afternoon. “It has to be discouraging to people who live next to these vacant properties and to people looking for decent housing in Logansport that can’t find it. Our community responded in a robust way to the blight elimination program, and I would urge local residents to contact their state legislators because there are many communities like Logansport out there who aren’t benefiting from their hard-earned tax dollars because of decisions made in Indianapolis.”

The mayor said the project would have made single-family housing available in the city, placed many properties back on tax rolls and likely raised the market value of surrounding properties with new investment, as well as creating construction jobs and material investment in the city and county.

“The timing of a housing master plan for the city now is essential for our community,” Kitchell said. “The city council agreed to move funding for it forward to be considered at the March 5 meeting. Unfortunately, we can’t wait on grant projects like this forever to fill a housing need that may never be funded with the state taxes we all pay. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the reality that many communities like ours are facing.”

SOURCE: News release from Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell

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