CCHA pursues Mills Park Sale
LOCK HAVEN – The Clinton County Housing Authority is moving ahead with plans to sell its 27-unit Mills Park public housing along Huron Avenue in Renovo.
The authority board met on Tuesday of this week and hired a consultant to, according to authority executive director Jeff Rich, “guide” the housing agency through the sale process. He said the authority expects to act on the consultant’s report at its next meeting set for Tuesday, Feb. 16.
If the board decides to proceed with a sale of the units between 13th and 14th streets, the transaction could be completed by the fall of this year, Rich said.
Rich went before Renovo borough council at its meeting last week to update authority plans for Mills Park. He blamed a declining occupancy rate for the decision by the authority to dispose of the property. He said Mills Park had a 12 percent average vacancy rate for 2015. He said HUD guidelines want nothing higher than a 2 percent occupancy rate.
Rich said a meeting has been held with current occupants to keep them informed of any sale. Rich said current residents would receive preferential treatment in any relocation, including placement in other authority housing in either Renovo or Lock Haven.
According to Rich, the county has put the assessed value of the units at $1.2 million and an authority-authorized study put the current value at $660,000.
Information at the council meeting included word that the housing authority currently pays the borough $3,400 annually in lieu of taxes. That number would likely increase if and when the property would go back on the tax rolls.
Asked where the proceeds would go from any sale, Rich said the money could be used to construct new elderly housing in Lock Haven. Meeting participants from Renovo said they would prefer to see new elderly housing in the borough.
Plans for the authority to look at a sale had first surfaced last summer.
