Housing gap study shows Barren County short nearly 2,000 units

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

According to information collected and released by the Kentucky Housing Corporation and the Bowen National Research, Barren County is short nearly 2,000 housing units.

On April 16 the corporation released its findings of its Kentucky “Housing Supply Gap Analysis for rental and for-sale housing for each of the 120 counties within the state of Kentucky, as well as for Kentucky’s 15 Area Development Districts.”

The report showed that the commonwealth is lacking 206,207 housing units, and, in the county-by-county breakdown, that Barren County, with its population of 45,133, has a housing deficit of 1,846 units — which includes the 938 rental units and the 908 for-sale units that are needed.

“The housing supply shortage is Kentucky’s most urgent housing issue,” KHC Deputy Executive Director of Housing Programs Wendy Smith said. “It’s impacting middle-income Kentuckians and poor Kentuckians alike. Increasing our housing supply is key to increasing homeownership rates, lowering housing costs, and reducing housing instability and homelessness.”

The results of the study were further broken down by income, specifically the study uses Area Median Income, also known as Median Family Income by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which “is calculated on an annual basis by the Department of Housing and Urban Development…based on a four-person household.” Currently Barren County’s Area Median Income is $61,900, and as Kentucky League of Cities states the housing gap affects “every income level” across the commonwealth’s 120 counties.

In Barren County the “less than 30 percent AMI” segment represents the largest gap with a rental gap of 629 and a for-sale gap of 190.

KLC also stated that they expect many Kentucky counties to experience growth, which will be positive for the respective economies, but will also exacerbate the housing gap. As previously reported the incoming battery factory in Glendale is expected to have an impact on the surrounding counties.

According to Luke Schmidt, whose consulting firm that provided information on the economic impact on counties surrounding Glendale for BlueOval SK, the “primary spillover” to Barren County will be in possible supplier plants that will serve the Glendale plant. Kevin Myatt, planning director of the Joint City-County Planning Commission, said the plant’s location on Interstate 65 does present the possibility of residential growth as well — though he said at the time that residential growth was likely to occur regardless of BlueOval SK.

During the last Joint City-County Planning Commission meeting on May 20 two public hearings were held on two zone change applications that sought to change the current single family residential districts to multifamily and two family residential districts, respectively.

Both public hearings listed Pie De La Loma Properties LLC as the owner/applicant and both zone change applications were in Cave City — one being at 108 White Avenue and the other being roughly 700 feet southwest of White and Gillenwater streets.

“They are requesting a change in zoning in response to an acute need for more entry-level housing in Barren County, specifically in [Cave] City being a centerpoint between Bowling Green and Glendale, where an increase in manufacturing and industry are increasing an already existing shortage of smaller, affordable housing,” Myatt said at the May 20 meeting quoting the official submitted request.

“There is a definite need for smaller, entry-level housing, especially in our area, there’s quite a shortage,” the developer added after Myatt’s report when Chairperson Tommy Gumm opened the hearing to the public.

Excluding those zone change applications, for they have not yet submitted any concrete development plans, Myatt said there are between 20 and 25 residential developers operating in Barren County currently — that number includes all residential zoning distinctions whether they be multi-family or single family zones — and he suspects that number to continue to grow in the future.

As previously reported, on Aug. 16, Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd told Glasgow News 1 that one way the county is trying to help facilitate growth is by making Barren County “easy to work with” in regards to all the permits, inspections, fees and whatever else one needs for development. In that effort Byrd has brought up on numerous occasions her feelings that a contractor group is needed — with the idea being all the necessary offices and personnel would be all in one place — and the imminent move to the old U.S. Bank building, which is now dubbed the Barren County Development Center.

“We’re trying to be on the front end by making sure we have the requirements in place that are involved in the building of these new subdivisions and everything,” Byrd said at the time. “What we’ve been doing as a county is to try and be as easy to work with as possible and be more involved with issues in the front end.”