Praise city’s efforts to increase housing options

The city of Medford made it official this week with final council approval of an agreement to bring a 64-unit apartment complex to the area.

Much like any other economic development package, the city provided concessions to the developers to make coming to the city easier. Greasing the proverbial wheels with free land and financing packages has been a longtime practice when it comes to major industrial and commercial development deals.

In this case, the city provided land it owned in the industrial park. Since the parcel in question has done little for the city but grow grass for the public works department to cut for the past decade, getting it in the hands of a developer and back on the tax rolls is a win for all city taxpayers.

In the long view, providing $800,000 in no-interest financing to the developers for the project will likewise be a net positive for city residents. Through careful financial planning under previous and current city leadership, the city of Medford has built a healthy fund balance. The state of Wisconsin imposes limits on the type of investments municipalities are able to make. As anyone who has looked at CD rates in recent years can tell, the rate of return on these types of investments is very low. At the same time that savings interest is low, inflation is galloping upward, diminishing the value of savings. Putting that money to work to bring increased tax base and much needed housing was a good investment in the community’s future. At the end of the repayment period the city will have its money back as well as having additional economic activity.

The other good housing and economic development news this week was word that the grant had formally been submitted for the city’s other project to bring a 40-unit income qualifying workforce housing project to the city. The city won’t find out until early spring if that grant is successful.

If all goes according to plans, the two projects would result in more than 100 new apartment units in the city.

With housing being a major deterrent to new people coming into the community to fill the jobs that are available here, having that number of apartment options in the pipeline is exciting news. Growing the community’s workforce population is good, not only for industry and the local tax base, but it is good for retail businesses of all sizes. More people living in the city translates into more dollars being spent on goods and services in the community. This translates into retailers needing to expand their operations with more jobs which will spur further private investment in housing. There is a snowball effect when it comes to economic development efforts with success in the future building off of efforts undertaken today. The Medford city council members, city leaders and members of the economic development community who did the legwork to get this ball rolling deserve thanks and praise for setting the stage for the community’s long term growth.