Committee advances NEZ certificate for three new single-family homes in East Village

City Planning staff presented a petition for a Neighborhood Enterprise Zone (NEZ) certificate for three new single-family houses in the East Village area and the committee approved a recommendation to send the certificate forward.

Chris Gulak, City Planning Commission staff, said the petitioner is a project of Great Water Homes (a venture of Great Water Opportunity Capital) and that the properties are vacant single-family lots in the East Village NEZ. Gulak described four house models (roughly 1,000 to 1,850 square feet, two to four bedrooms) and reported estimated construction costs of $275,000 to $425,000 with projected sale prices from about $550,000 to $650,000.

Gulak said the NEZ tax break would reduce property tax obligations for new buyers to roughly $6,000 per year during the abatement versus an estimate of approximately $19,000 annually without the NEZ, producing a substantial benefit for purchasers. Building permits for the three houses have been issued and staff recommended approval of the certificate.

Developer Matt Temkin (present on the call) answered committee questions on sales activity and scaling: he said the builder has sold about 40 houses in the area to date, that there are hundreds of available lots and that single-family product for-sale appears viable without the large subsidies that multifamily construction would require. Temkin described alley-access detached garages and said the builder can provide ADA-accessible ground-floor options on request.

The committee voted to send the NEZ certificate forward with a recommendation to approve. Members asked the administration to continue working on related infrastructure concerns such as alley and sidewalk conditions and to consider down-payment assistance linkages and senior housing opportunities in future discussions.

Next steps: the committee’s recommendation will be forwarded according to council procedures for final action.