ASHLAND — The Ashland land bank is mulling whether to partially fund an independent, comprehensive housing study of the county.
The board moved at its Feb. 16 meeting to table the decision to hire DiSalvo Development Advisors. The firm, based in Dublin, Ohio, charges a flat fee of $25,000 for completing the comprehensive study.
Tiffany Meyer, a broker with Howard Hanna and land bank board member, said the Ashland Board of Realtors — of which she is a part — applied for a grant to cover the housing study.
She said it received $7,500 from ABOR’s national affiliate and $3,750 from the organization’s state affiliate.
“So we actually got $11,250 total,” Meyer said.
That means the land bank, if it agreed, would pay $13,750. Meyer, however, said she is seeking another quote from a firm in Columbus that has indicated its price could be around $21,000.
Ashland Mayor Matt Miller, who also serves as the land bank board’s president, said historically he’s been skeptical of this type of work.
“I’m extremely skeptical of all consultants as it relates to these kind of plans … Do I really need someone to come in here and, first of all, ask us what we need and then put it on paper and tell us what we need — when we’re the ones who told them what we needed?” he said.
Does a housing study fit land bank’s mission?
Nevertheless, he said he is a proponent of the study because it would, ultimately, serve as a way to fulfill part of the land bank’s mission.
“Which is to turn abandoned facilities, whether it be commercial or old homes that are no longer lived in, into revitalized communities and revitalized properties,” Miller said.
Burton Williams, the land bank’s newest board member, said he struggles to see how funding a housing study aligns with the land bank’s mission.
“When this report is done, we’re going to provide it to those companies to come in and say ‘here is what you need here, you can come and make money here,’ right?” Williams said.
Ashland County Treasurer Angie McQuillen, who also serves as a land bank board member, said she also doesn’t see how a housing study fits within the board’s scope.
Miller and Meyer conceded that yes, the housing study will help developers know what is needed in certain communities.
But the study could also indirectly help townships when applying for grants on infrastructure projects, Meyer said.
For example, a housing study could state Polk needs more multi-family units, she said. But if the village doesn’t have adequate stormwater infrastructure to support more houses, the township could point to the housing study in a grant application for funding on infrastructure projects.
Data, data, data
The mayor also said he hears from developers frequently.
One of the things they ask is whether the county has a housing study that points to data.
“In a world where many peoples’ decisions are driven by data — that’s what this provides,” Miller said.
It was Williams’ first land bank meeting. His predecessor, Kent McGovern, was not re-elected as a Perry Township trustee.
When that happened, McGovern stopped serving on the Ashland County Township Trustee Association, so the association appointed Williams in January to serve on the land bank as its liaison.
Williams, currently a Perry Township trustee, ran a failed bid against incumbent county commissioner Denny Bittle in 2022.
At the time, he said one of the reasons he ran was because he viewed the land bank as “expanding government” and that he “didn’t like how (the land bank) was pitched.”
The land bank will meet again on March 15 to vote on whether to partially fund a housing study.