City hears prices of potential housing development

At its last meeting, the City of Greenbush approved contacting its engineer Widseth, Smith, Nolting to get costs related to developing almost half of the old airport land for a potential housing development. The council heard those costs during its April 19 council meeting, but didn’t take any official action at this time.

Dustin Fanfulik, representing the city’s engineer, Widseth, Smith, Nolting, provided costs of developing this area— one covering about 15 lots.

“These are pretty good-sized lots the way they are right now,” Fanfulik said. “I understand that’s kind of the goal is to have a pretty good-sized lot. With that, you got some negative… the cost per lot being a little higher compared to smaller lots.”

The largest expense of this project would be the sanitation and sewer costs, totaling $743,000. Fanfulik explained how the amount of infrastructure that would need to go in for this area— including a lift station that would need to be installed— factored into the high costs. City Clerk Anita Locken added how this one lift station would service the whole area.

“Because of the elevation, of the way that land sits, a new lift station will have to be installed,” Fanfulik said.

He explained how in a project such as this, when it comes to the sewer and water costs, the city would have to fund a “good” portion of this part versus accessing the properties due all the infrastructure that would need to be installed just to get out there.

“That’s ultimately up to you guys how you want to do it,” Fanfulik said, “but that’s typically how cities have kind of handled that in the past.”

The water main costs of this project totaled $271,000 and the street costs, including for the gravel road, ditch, and storm water pond expenses, totaled $275,000. The total estimated cost of this project came to $1.289 million.

This discussion related to creating a housing development on the airport land came after Locken listed the number of vacant homes at the March city meeting. She reported that the City of Greenbush had no available lots. She mentioned how she usually gets three to four people per year inquiring about open lots in Greenbush.

Asked if she received any phone calls since the city’s last meeting, Locken said no, but added how the interest is there.

“I’ve had lots of people from the public commenting on how it’s about time we move forward with it,” Locken said.

Council member Josh Kern also commented on the interest in the project.

“A lot of people I’ve talked to they (said), ‘Oh, awesome.’ And, obviously, a lot of people don’t know the cost of it is of starting,” Kern said. “But when we don’t have any lots to offer, as of right now, sooner or later, we’re going to have to do something.”

Before moving on to the next topic, Greenbush Mayor Eric Etherington said, “I think this gives us a good idea, at least what it would (cost for this development).”

To see the complete city story, read the April 28 issue of The Tribune in print or online.