A neighborhood of new homeowners will be springing up on 14 acres of unused Portage land soon.

Stanwood Crossings, named because it will sit between Stanley and Woodbine avenues in Portage's Lake Center District, will be a community of 45 single-family homes, priced to be "workforce housing."

The houses will be affordable to home buyers making between 80%-120% of the Area Median Income in Kalamazoo County, thanks in part to the Kalamazoo County "Homes for All" millage and the implementation of  a community land trust, the first of its kind in Kalamazoo County.

The income range, according to the City of Portage’s information on the project, is $56,480 to $84,720 for a single person, or $64,560 to $96,840 for a two-person household.

"We're talking about -- this sounds like a stump speech -- teachers, health care workers, assembly line workers, public safety officers," Portage City Manager Patrick McGinnis says of the workforce housing designation. 

Courtesy photoPortage City Manager Patrick McGinnis.The houses are meant for people in "the industries that make up the greater Kalamazoo area and pay good living wages. Those people can't afford a new home right now in Portage or anywhere else. So we're trying to create an environment where they can afford that first home, and stake their claim here in Portage," he says.

The land, a wooded plot that's never seen development, is ringed by classic mid-century suburban-style homes. A short walk or bike ride to the north is Lakeview Park and to the south is Lake Center Elementary. Austin and West Lakes are nearby. 

McGinnis is looking forward to connecting Stanwood Crossings with Portage's plans to remake the Lake Center District, now dominated by Portage Road, into a walkable and bikeable community.

Construction is expected to start this spring.

'Starter homes'

The City of Portage bought the land for $265,000 in 2021, McGinnis says. 

The purchase came about after Mayor Patricia Randall and Kalamazoo County Housing Director Mary Balkema took a walk on the land, "and wondered if we could envision something that included housing, and how it could be affordable to folks, but how it could be really the nicest house on the block as well," Balkema says.

Once upon a time, the dream of owning such a home was in reach for many. Around the time G.I.s were returning from WWII to start the Baby Boom, the concept of the "starter home" was created. Simple, cheap, and big enough for a growing family, as long as that family planned to move to something bigger, eventually. 

The concept still exists, but according to Forbes, "the $300,000 starter home is going extinct." Post-COVID, newly built, cheaper, and smaller homes have been experiencing shrinkflation, getting smaller, yet more expensive. 

Portage's Community Development department has found that over the last four years, " the cost to develop homesites and build new homes has risen by over 40%." 

Looking elsewhere in Portage, one can find examples of new developments that are definitely not priced for the workforce. 

AVB's The Homestead, off of West Milham Avenue, is an example of developments where large houses have gone up over the past ten years on cul-de-sacs. Zillow lists the worth of houses here ranging from $600,000 to $900,000, with a small number in the $500,000 range. 

We asked McGinnis if it's accurate to say that the marketplace has no motivation to build a bit smaller and a bit more affordable. Is the market in a space where developers might as well go big to make a profit?

Courtesy photo"Yeah, any of these new developments that we have coming along are doing exactly that," McGinnis answers. "Home prices are coming in in the $500,000, $600,000 range, which is not what I consider affordable, and I'm doing pretty good.

"So, you know, for somebody at the median income, which is right in the middle, $300,000 is aiming pretty high," he says.

Forbes' "$300,000 starter home" is still too expensive for actual middle-income families, he thinks. But the prices of houses in Stanwood Crossings should be lower.

To build what's planned, McGinnis says, the cost would place the houses above $300,000, normally. 

"I'm guessing, $350,000-ish, $325,000-ish is what the cost will be to get them in," he says. "And we're going to try to get people into them for $225,000 or $250,000."

Subsidies will keep the prices for new homeowners low. The project is getting $1 million in federal earmark from U.S. Senators Stabenow and Peters, $3 million from Kalamazoo County's housing millage, "a million dollars in City ARPA funding, and a half million in County ARPA funding," McGinnis says.

"We've also got $100,000 in down payment assistance from the County. And we're holding on to that. So for some of those first buyers, we'll have some down payment help to help them get into the home," he says.

Too nice to be 'starter homes'

"These are $350,000 homes that we're subsidizing down," Balkema says. 

Willa DiTaranto, Kalamazoo County Housing Project Manager, estimates that if the land development was factored in, including new infrastructure and streets, "you're looking at probably $500,000 to buy one of these homes." 

"They're three bedroom, two bath. I don't know if I would exactly call it a starter home," Balkema says. To her, a starter home is like the ones a buyer might find in older neighborhoods, like Oakwood. 

Second Wave fileKalamazoo County Housing Director Mary BalkemaStanwood Crossings' developer is AVB, the same company behind the aforementioned Homestead. The house designs are "really nice," Balkema says. Floor plans show 1,200 square foot ranch styles and 1,640 square foot two-story houses with attached garages. 

The ground the houses will sit on will be owned by a non-profit community land trust. Because the homeowner is only buying the house and not the land the purchase price is more affordable. The homeower leases the land on longterm renewable lease and agrees to sell the home at a price that will keep it affordable. They can realize appreciation from any improvements the make to the home while they live in it. 

Because of it, "This is going to be an affordable housing opportunity in perpetuity," DiTaranto says. "So rather than a one-time subsidy for one family to get into a house, this will be available for generations of families, potentially."

Whenever the home changes hands, homeowners will sign a ground lease with the trust. "The ground lease dictates a number of things, including the price that the house can be sold at the next time it gets sold," DiTaranto says.

"It's set up similar to a site condo or an HOA association where you just own your condo and not necessarily the land that it's sitting on. But rather than doing things like dictating what color your door can be and things like that, it's (the  community land trust is) dictating the affordability."

The land trust will be the first of its kind in Kalamazoo County, McGinnis says.

Second Wave fileWilla DiTaranto, Kalamazoo County Housing Project ManagerHe used a community land trust to keep homes affordable at a similar project in Grand Haven when he was city manager there before taking the role in Portage.

McGinnis describes it simply: "The land trust owns the real estate. You own the improvements, but you still appreciate your investment. It still appreciates at the same rate it would as if you owned the property. You just aren't appreciating your value on the property, but you are on the improvements, which is probably 80% of the value."

The house purchased for $250,000 may be worth $350,000 in the future. 

The land value won't factor into its worth but "you still get that American dream, that wealth-building, beautiful mechanism that can work for you and your family."

Part of an evolving Lake Center District

The original Stanwood Crossings plan included 11 quadplex buildings, or townhouse style multi-family units, plus 34 homes, for a total of 78 homes. That plan got a poor reception from Lake Center residents, so it was adjusted to 45 houses in June. The City council approved the plan Oct. 22.

McGinnis considered plans for 60, 50, and "ultimately, you know, we came up with a plan with 45 homes that we think is very appropriate."

In the battle between sprawl and density, McGinnis leans towards the latter. 

"People get very concerned when they hear a word like 'density,'" he says. "But ultimately that's just a more efficient way to develop property and to accommodate the growth that you're going to have anyway.

"As you start spreading (a community) out, it becomes very inefficient. Traffic is worse. Cost of utility delivery is much, much higher."

McGinnis says he heard somewhere, maybe from a Chuck Marohn (the civil engineer and author of “Strong Towns”) talk, that "the measurement of a good neighborhood is where you can walk to get an ice cream."

The plans for Stanwood Crossings show new streets, trees, and sidewalks along the streets, two entrances from Woodbine and Stanley, and a non-motorized path to Portage Road.

McGinnis says that Lakeview Park will be a better place for play and recreation for Stanwood Crossings families after the improvements and renovations that are underway are completed. Also, students should be able to walk or bike to nearby Lake Center Elementary. 

Plus, Portage Road should see changes that have been planned since Second Wave covered the topic in 2021. 

Courtesy photoHe sees the new housing development as a part of the coming puzzle of making the district less of a Portage Road "throughway," he says. 

McGinnis points out that the Lake Center Zoning Ordinance, due for public comments and a council vote in January will "create the bones" for a walkable Lake Center District of businesses and homes. Part of this will rely on slowing traffic on Portage Road. 

"That is a road for people to drive through Portage, not to Portage," he says.

"We're trying to change that so that the Lake Center District will be a place for people who live there and work there and go to school there." The area between Austin and West Lakes will have coffee shops, markets, restaurants with a "neighborhood-y feel...  It'll get its own kind of unique vibe," he says.

"So it's quite a balance that we're trying to work out through zoning, through public investment, new roads, and through incentives to get people to build neighborhoods that make sense," McGinnis says.

His goal is for Stanwood Crossings "to be a very attractive neighborhood that will be there for a long, long time serving Portage families."

And those families will be a short walk from home to the nearest ice cream.