BY STEFANIE BOWMANN, Eastern Shore Post —
The average value of newly constructed homes in Northampton County is $543,000 — not including the value of the land on which the homes were built.
In Northampton, 34% of renters and 23% of homeowners are cost-burdened, meaning those households have less money for food, child care, and transportation.
Although there were 157 new homes built in Northampton last year, much of the county’s existing housing stock is aging out, said County Administrator Charlie Kolakowski — meaning there’s no real gain in the number of homes.
The Northampton Board of Supervisors peeled back the layers of the county’s housing problem during a January meeting.
The obstacles were numerous, but the standout issue conveyed by a developer and several elected and appointed officials was housing density.
These same stakeholders say the county’s zoning regulations, particularly on housing density, prevent developers from using creative strategies to build attainable workforce housing.
“The issue is not a simple one,” said Supervisor Dixon Leatherbury, who called the current zoning ordinance “burdensomely complex.”
In addition, some are concerned that development may impact open space and detract from the county’s character.
Supervisor Betsy Mapp said that whatever zoning changes are made, Northampton will need regulations that preserve open space, otherwise the county will have “wall-to-wall people, and there goes our great outdoors.”
For now, the housing problem on the Eastern Shore is twofold: there are too few available homes, and the few available options are too expensive for many potential buyers or renters.
Supervisor John Coker said developers are not building affordable housing anymore, and most new homes cost over $400,000.
He said Northampton County needs more homes in the $250,000 range that can be purchased for $1,500 to $2,000 a month.
“What we have isn’t working for getting us more housing,” he said.
Strategies in place
Eric Luchansky, director of housing development for the Accomack-Northampton Planning District Commission, said the strategy his organization is using to make homes more affordable is to sell each house with a portion of the total cost on a second deed of trust or loan.
For example, A-NPDC sold a one-bedroom home on Occohannock Neck Road in Exmore for $165,000 plus $42,000 on a second deed of trust, which is essentially an interest-free loan for as long as the owner lives in the home.
Chesapeake-based Virginia Builders is permitted to build 27 homes in a subdivision off Cheriton Cross Road. Instead of building 27 more expensive, single-family homes, the contractor is willing to build 27 duplexes — 54 less-expensive housing units — that will be easier to afford for middle-income families.
Ashley Thornes, Virginia Department of Health master alternative onsite soil evaluator, said the health department is onboard with permitting the installation of shared septic systems for duplexes.
A duplex with two or three bedrooms per unit, or four to six bedrooms total, could share one septic system, Thornes said.
Northampton’s comprehensive plan favors the construction of new housing in and around towns with public sewer systems, but because the expansion of sewer service is realistically 30 or 40 years out, the immediate focus must be on areas that can support homes with private septic systems, Kolakowski said.
But there are other hurdles to jump, the highest one being Northampton County amending its zoning ordinance to allow double housing density in some areas.
The duplexes would require increasing housing density from one to two homes per 20,000 square feet of land, or approximately a half-acre.
There was a consensus at the work session that increased housing density should be restricted to an area with subdivisions that are two or three miles from an incorporated town.
In addition to considering higher housing density, Northampton supervisors also must decide whether or not to provide extensions for planned subdivisions that have not been built and will expire in July.
Housing options for low-income families also are being considered, including mobile home parks, which are supported in Northampton’s comprehensive plan.
Renting a mobile home is also a good option for a first home or temporary housing for someone who is starting a career but isn’t planning to reside on the Shore permanently, supervisors said.
However, many of Northampton’s existing mobile home parks do not conform to the current regulations, so when the units reach the end of their lifespan and are not replaced, that housing stock is lost.
Furthermore, Northampton’s zoning ordinance is not conducive to the construction of new mobile home parks due to the “excessive” regulations, Kolakowski said.
For example, a new mobile home park may have only two units per acre, compared to the six or eight units per acre in many existing mobile home parks in Northampton County.
A new mobile home park also requires a setback of 300 feet from U.S. Route 13 and 200 feet from other public access roads, and it must be screened from view by vegetation 25 feet deep.
Other options
Options for a low-income household to purchase a home include Habitat for Humanity, which has an Eastern Shore branch.
A homebuyer who qualified for assistance from Habitat for Humanity traditionally worked alongside volunteers to build the dwelling and got a zero-interest home loan.
Eastern Shore of Virginia Habitat for Humanity is working to make its homes even more affordable by opting for modular homes instead of traditional stick-built construction.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development also offers home loan programs with no credit score requirement, no down payment, and low interest rates.
But Kolakowski cautioned that government home loans aren’t the ideal solution for every person seeking housing.
“They set the income limits so low, they put people in a house that they own, but they can’t afford to maintain it,” he said.
Renters doing their part to properly maintain homes is also key to housing attainability, supervisors said.
Supervisor Oliver Bennett pointed out that a landlord will hesitate to rent to someone who has a reputation for damaging or destroying properties, and the cost to repair the properties drives up rental prices.
He would like to see the creation of a home caretaking course for renters, similar to the free course for first-time homebuyers that is offered through the A-NPDC.
Glen Anders, a member of the Northampton planning commission, noted that he and his colleagues have been spending a lot of time on regulations for short-term vacation rental homes, not on permanent housing.
He spoke cautiously of the housing density issue and imagined “people coming out of the woodwork” to address the “sticky topic.”
Coker said the county needs “to come up with some different ways to look at … lot size to get more housing.”
“I would agree with that 100%,” Anders said.
