The Snow Hill Town Council, last Tuesday, discuss a request from the Snow Hill Citizens for Decent Housing to waive connection fees. Pictured, from left, are Councilwoman Alison Cook, Mayor Charlie Dorman, Councilwoman Jenny Hall and Councilwoman LaToya Purnell.

Citizens for Decent Housing Inc. sought connection fee reduction for development

(April 5, 2018) Town of Snow Hill officials during a work session last Tuesday said they would do everything they could to reduce connection fees for a nonprofit housing project in the town.

Snow Hill Citizens for Decent Housing Inc., a nonprofit group in operation for more than three decades, asked for a waiver or reduction of about $10,000 in fees associated with water and sewer hookup for eight new properties adjacent to the Greenbrier Court complex.

“We’ve been in existence for 34 years [with] our private, nonprofit corporation that is concerned with low-to-moderate-income housing,” President Tawney Kraus said. “We have built and run two of the apartment complexes here in town.”

She said the nonprofit has also built, sold and rented other homes in Snow Hill.

“In other words, we have contributed to the tax base of this town in a significant manner over the years,” Kraus said.

“We have eight units … and we’d like to sell them,” she continued. “When we built Greenbrier apartments and Greenbrier Drive, we had the manpower there, we had the equipment there and we had money, and we figured why not put the water and sewer hookups – all the guts of it – in while we’re here.”

Kraus said all that was left to do was hook the lines up to town infrastructure.

“We are asking that we be granted a waiver of the fee or a significant reduction,” she said, adding “I’ve been told the town will not grant a waiver and that they’re going to assess whoever owns the house … even though we’ve done it already.”

Mayor Charlie Dorman said meters still needed to be installed, but offered, “That’s not necessary. You’re just talking to us now. We haven’t said [the fee would not be reduced].”

“This is the first you’ve asked for it,” he said. “We’re not that bad – that’s for sure.

“We won’t make that decision right now, but I understand what you’ve done and … I can see no reason why we can’t reduce [the fee],” Dorman added. “We won’t charge you the whole thing.”

Realtor Gary Weber, also representing Snow Hill Citizens for Decent Housing, said a reduction would “help people who might not otherwise be able to afford a property.”

“This would help us to market the lots at a lower rate and we hope to be working with several local builders … to kind of get packaging together,” Weber said. “Right now the rents in Snow Hill can be higher than a mortgage.”

To rent a small two-bedroom cottage, he said, cost $800 or more.

“A mortgage on a house … could be close to that or maybe even a little less,” Weber said. “That’s the goal, to keep the price of the property low enough so that it’s affordable.”

Dorman asked Public Works Director Randy Barfield to come back with a cost estimate to install meters.

“We’ll help you out, that’s for sure,” Dorman said. “You’re not like the county – they buy our houses and take them out of the tax bracket.”

Also during the work session, the council members consented to allow political displays during First Friday and Fifth Friday events, and farmer’s markets.