Frequently Asked Questions

• What you described seems like a rare situation. Do you have to educate all parties involved?
  Education will be an important part of this process, particularly as it relates to plan commissions, counsels/boards, and residents. This will be part of Walworth County Economic Development Alliance's (WCEDA's) directive going forward.
  
  
• What's the best way to educate the public/elected local government on how TIDs and TIFs work... how do you address NIMBY (not in my backyard)?
  TIDs/TIFs are often times misunderstood, but financial consultants like Ehlers who consults for many of the Walworth County municipalities, are good at explaining these in layman's terms. Municipal administrators and legal counsel are also good at explaining these. In terms of NIMBYs, there is recent legislation that has been passed that makes it much harder to vote no based on public opinion versus what is established in a municipality's comprehensive plan without having the threat of a viable lawsuit filed against them. Education around the need for housing and its impact on the local economies and school districts will also be important in addressing the objections of NIMBYs. Again, WCEDA plans to provide this type of education as part of its workforce housing initiative.
  
  
• Do all of our local school districts have a person assigned to help ID homeless students (even those living with relatives) and make federal funds available to them thru the McKinney Vento program?
  The answer to this question will take further investigation but WCEDA is in regular contact with the superintendents representing all the districts in Walworth County and will encourage them to assign someone to identify homeless students if they do not currently do so.
  
  
• What is the cost differential for stick built vs. prefab home development?
  Further research is needed on this topic, but the general rule of thumb is that prefab home development can be 10-20% less expensive for a comparable home. Having said that, there are other factors that need to be taken into account when considering this type of housing that include factors like resale value and zoning that permits for this type of housing.
  
  
• Aside from the community health plan has anyone included conversations with the population that we’re talking about. Those who need this affordable housing. How are we engaging these individuals?
  At this point, engagement about housing has been through the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) and the recent Walworth County Housing Summit. As has been mentioned, WCEDA will be heading up 12-month workforce housing initiative that will be working with those municipalities in Walworth County who have an interest in facilitating more housing in their respective communities. Interested parties will be encouraged to visit www.walworthbusiness.com/housing for updates and the opportunity to receive e-communications on this topic. The county and all the partners who continue to participate in the CHIP process will also share communications through their respective channels.
  
  
• Can WalCo Business Dev partner with our local municipalities to give them counsel or a “grade” of how development friendly they are? Many boards are not aware of how their policies effect development.
  WCEDA will be interfacing with municipal leaders, school leaders, and employers and will connect all these stakeholders with resources that can facilitate more housing for those municipalities that desire to do so. During the course of this work, feedback about policies and processes will be offered. In this way, municipalities that are interested in housing development will be self-selecting into this process, which will foster development friendly input and resources.
  
  
• In the SEWRPC housing handout, they identify areas where apartments and modest size homes are not permitted. What is the County Administration doing to change zoning in these township communities?
  Cities and villages control their zoning policies. The county controls the zoning for the townships. However, the county generally takes direction from the townships on zoning. So, if the townships wanted to change zoning in certain districts, they would work with the county to do so. In all of the cases, zoning changes would have to be consistent with each municipality's comprehensive plan, and if this is not the case, a municipality would need to amend its comprehensive plan to allow for the new zoning changes. Amendments require a series of public meetings.
  
  
• Is anyone in Walworth County including access to transportation with housing? There’s such a lack of transportation that goes along with living in the county.
  Part of the county's plan to utilize American Rescue Plan Assistance (ARPA) Funds included the expansion of transportation access. WCEDA's workforce housing initiative will not address transportation specifically but will be reporting regularly to the county and will report major barriers that are uncovered along the way.
  
  
• Household size is decreasing. Ordinance is a major factor in dev cost. People prefer walk-ability & privacy. Walworth County has a min 22x22 SFR footprint. Why not investigate “self-sustaining” micro communities?
  Two counties that have been monitored closely during the evolution of this housing initiative over the past two years have been Washington County's Next Generation Housing initiative and Jefferson County's Next Generation Housing initiative. WCEDA will be visiting with these communities and others to discover lessons learned relating to all types of housing considerations. It will also be seeking advice from land planning firms, like Vandewalle and Associates who presented at the summit.
  
  
• Looking at new construction for sale in Walworth County, the listings average a 3 br 2 ba for $500k. With the median income in Walworth county being $69k, is the only option for affordable housing multifamily?
  There are new single-family homes being offered in the county in the low $315-325k range. The goal of WCEDA effort for the next 12 months will be to facilitate public/private partnerships that will help bring the costs below $300k for the lower-end housing but will also be working to do the same for the next level of housing and also for various types of multi-housing units. Zoning, neighborhood design requirements, tax incremental financing, and other potential resources will be required to make these efforts a reality.
  
  
• Do you have any suggestions for public relations with development projects when faced with NIMBY objections?
  The Housing for a Healthy Walworth County booklet that was distributed at the summit will be helpful as well as the PowerPoint presentation that UW-Madison's Professor Kurt Paulsen used at the summit. Both of these are available on WCEDA's website. Go to www.walworthbusiness.com/housing and click on the Housing Summit link.
  
  
• In our community, can you say what, if any, impacts short term rentals has on our housing affordability?
  There is no specific data that we are aware of at this time, but anecdotally and intuitively, it is believed that that short-term rentals have put additional pressure on the housing market in terms of lowering the availability rate and increasing the cost of housing stock. A number of Walworth County municipalities are looking at this issue and may want to learn more about the specific impacts on their communities. We will be following these developments and share these in our regular communications.
  
  
• I'm focused on empowering, mentoring and investing in young adults ages 18-30. I'm interested in developing tiny home communities with community involvement in their growth. What zoning allows for this?
  There is no zoning in the county to our knowledge that allows for this type of housing. However, most communities would consider this, and interested parties would need to work with individual municipalities to obtain a conditional use permit to utilize this type of housing. It might be helpful to contact local realtors could help identify available land.
  
  
• For those projects that require tax incremental financing or other municipal assistance to bring the cost of housing below the current market rates, how will the lower prices of these units be protected?
  There are deed restrictions that can be put in place to limit the increase per year that is allowed, usually tied to an inflation rate and done over a 10-30 year period before the unit will eventually go back to market rate.
  

Have a question you'd like added to this list? Contact us at pam@walworthbusiness.com today!