A local developer is planning to build affordable housing apartments for senior citizens in College Township.
Evergreen Heights is a proposed three-story, 40-unit apartment building for qualified individuals age 62 and older to be constructed on a parcel at the intersection of Trout Road and Pleasant Pointe Drive.
Trout Road Partners II — a limited partnership affiliated with HFL Corporation and its affordable housing subsidiary Progress Development Group — submitted plans for the project. Evergreen Heights would be located adjacent to Pleasant Pointe, an affordable townhouse community also developed HFL.
College Township Planning Commission on Tuesday night unanimously recommended approval of the preliminary/final land development plan by the township council, following a brief overview by Chad Stafford of project engineer PennTerra.
Plans call for a community garden, gazebo and benches around the exterior of the building and 76 parking spaces would be provided.
The apartment building takes up only a portion of the 6.2-acre parcel, with the remainder designated for future buildout.
College Township Council will vote on approving the plan at a date to be determined.
Progress Development Group was awarded $1.2 million in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency for the project in October, which will require that the units remain affordable for at least 30 years.
PHFA sets specific rent limits for affordable housing based on household income, which must be 60 percent or below the area median, number of people in the household and number of bedrooms in the rental unit.
The developer also received $631,420 through PHFA’s PennHOMES program, which provides no-interest loans for affordable developments and requires that half of the be restricted to households with incomes at or below 50 percent of the area’s median income.
Another $565,220 was awarded to the project from the National Housing Trust Fund program, which provides funds to develop housing for very low income households.
HFL and Progress Development Group have developed multiple affordable housing projects in Centre County, including Pleasant Pointe and Limerock Terrace in College Township, Atherton Place in State College, Bellefonte Mews and a new 18-unit building on Cherry Lane in Ferguson Township.
