SALEM, Va. (WDBJ) – Monday night, the Salem City Council voted unanimously to approve a rezoning request that will allow a developer to build 70 detached homes on a property off Mill Lane near its intersection with Penley Boulevard.
The city and the developer said it will help meet the city’s need for more housing.
“Salem, like every other community, is struggling for housing. They’ve not had a lot of new housing built in the city of Salem and we’re excited to participate in trying to help Salem grow and bring more people to Salem,* said developer Alexander Boone of ABoone Real Estate.
Boone said there has been very little housing built in Salem in recent years.
“Salem had a lot of housing built in the ‘70s and ‘80s, then it started trailing off in the ‘90s, and then it really fell off a cliff in the early 2000s and through the Great Recession. Very little housing has been built in the City of Salem in the last 20-25 years,” he said.
Unlike other recent housing proposals in the city, the project was met with very little opposition at its public hearing. The City of Salem said it fits within the city’s land use plans for the surrounding area.
“The land surrounding is residential single-family. I think the cluster development includes much open space and it’ll be a nice fit between the residential single-family developments in South Salem that exist today and the light manufacturing area to the North,” said Salem Assistant City Manager Rob Light.
The development, called Steelton Mill, will be built on the old Dorsey Farm property. It will include a mix of home types targeted at empty nesters and larger families.
“We want to have a neighborhood that really works for everyone. We want to have people who have to live on one floor, and we want to have big families who need two stories plus a finished basement,” said Boone. “We’ll have houses in there from 1,800 to 4,000 square feet. So we can really accommodate any lifestyle.”
Boone said adding smaller homes from empty nesters who want to downsize is a key part of addressing the housing needs of the area.
“Somebody said ‘Hey, I’m living in a large two-story home with a finished basement, but it’s just my wife and me now; the kids are gone. We need this type of housing and when we move that’s going to free up our house for another family to take our home,’” said Boone.
The homes will likely be priced at around $400,000. The city said as Salem continues to grow, it needs this variety of housing types.
“As we continue to look for opportunities to bring businesses to Salem, we need places for those folks to live. It comes back to the diversity, in my mind. Residential single-family, residential multi-family, people at different stages of their lives, have different needs and we want to be able to accommodate anybody that wants to choose Salem as their home,” said Light.
The project will go back before City Council for a second reading and vote May 12 that is essentially a formality. After that, the developer will be able to begin moving forward with the project. Alexander Boone said the plan is to begin developing the land in the fall and start building homes next spring. He says it will take about three years to build out all the homes.
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