Plans to develop senior housing in Tofte may have to wait.
Tofte supervisors were disheartened to learn that Minnesota lawmakers failed to pass the Omnibus Jobs and Economic Development Budget bill in the state’s June 13 special legislative session. Folded into that bill was language that would have given the township special housing authority powers for the senior housing project they are hoping to build behind the Birch Grove Community Center.
“We [township supervisors] are going to meet on Thursday, June 18 to discuss how we are going to proceed,” said Tofte Supervisor Jeanne Larson.
Larson is the board’s liaison to the senior housing project.
For now the contractor, Dynamic Homes, has been told to hold off on building the 12 twin patio homes, added Larson.
To date, a well has been drilled and some land cleared, but all work will halt until supervisors can figure out what to do next.
The township received about $350,000 in grants from the Iron Range Resources Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) for infrastructure for the 55-andolder senior housing. Provisions tied to that money call for it to be spent in a certain timeframe, said Larson. “We are going to ask to have those timeframes extended,” she said.
Planning has been in the works for more than five years to develop senior housing in Tofte. It has been driven by a desire to see seniors who have lived in the community throughout their lives have the ability to stay in the community when they are unable to care for their homes any longer. It is hoped that the homes they move out of will be sold to younger families needing housing.
The board has explored options to have other organizations or governmental entities placed in charge of the senior housing, but so far the best option they have found is the one put in front of the Minnesota legislature in bills drafted by Representative David Dill (DFL) in the House and Senator Tom Bakk (DFL) in the Senate asking for a special provision that would allow the township to have the same powers and authority over this development as a city would. However, when the governor and the legislature couldn’t agree on the education bill, a special session was called to settle their differences.
Meanwhile a lot of bills with bi-partisan support were stuck in the Omnibus Jobs and Economic Development Budget bill and they will have to wait until next year to be passed.
When a solution is found to this conundrum, Tofte will develop 12 rental homes that will be placed about 300 yards on a ridge above the Birch Grove Community Center.
Once built, the homes will have 900 square feet and renters can choose between a two-bedroom, one-bath unit or a one-bedroom, one-bath, wheelchair accessible house. Plans call for the homes to come with new appliances: washer/dryer and dishwasher and be heated by a gas furnace. There will be parking, garages and a storage facility.
“We have been tasked with two things,” said Larson, “To keep the rent affordable and to minimize the risk to the Tofte community. The most prudent thing for us to do might be to wait until this bill goes through next year. But right now I don’t know what we will do.”
It was hoped that the first units could be rented by October 1 of this year, and maybe that will still happen, but for now the long-planned senior housing will have to wait until the township supervisors meet to discuss just what their next steps will be.
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