Lee Leaders Mull Senior Village

Allowing a proposed affordable-housing development would be a reversal from previous Lee County Commission decisions. - Carlton Fletcher, Metro Editor

By Carlton Fletcher
Metro Editor
The Albany Herald
April 23,2010

LEESBURG — On the surface, the proposed $5 million-$6 million Forrester Senior Village development appears to be just the kind of shot in the arm the stagnant Lee County economy needs.

Figures released by Flint Ventures, one of the partners in the proposed development, indicate the project would generate $400,000 in immediate water and sewer tap fees, more than $50,000 a year in water and sewer usage fees and property taxes in the neighborhood of $80,000 a year.

Additionally, the 75 or so one- and two-bedroom apartment units would put struggling construction crews in the community to work, and the development’s tenants would eventually give the nearby Publix supermarket, CVS Pharmacy and Heritage Bank businesses currently in various stages of development a built-in base of potential customers.

Yet, a contingent in the community, one of whom ominously predicted “this project could be the beginning of the end of Lee County as we know it,” has openly questioned the wisdom of allowing the development, chiefly because its co-developers have expressed their intention to apply for federally funded tax credits.

“A lot of folks, when they hear ‘tax credits,’ they think of government-subsidized housing,” Josh Thomason, a development manager for Atlanta-based Peachtree Housing Partners LLC, said Thursday. “But what we’re applying for is based on federal legislation that was passed in 1986 under President Reagan.

“What the federal government decided then was that HUD was doing a horrible job of providing affordable housing. The tax credits incentivize private builders to develop quality affordable housing.”

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