Truckee housing project targets ‘missing middle’
By Sage Sauerbrey, Moonshine Ink
A new player in the housing scene took a big step forward when the Truckee Planning Commission recommended approval of the hotel-residential development known as Coburn Crossing, with amendments.
The project includes a 114-room Marriott Springhill Suites hotel and 138 residential units, to be built on the 10.35-acre property wedged between Interstate 80 and Donner Pass Road, to the east of the Truckee Cemetery.
The project will be reviewed for approval by the Truckee Town Council on Jan. 24. If approved, Triumph will be moving dirt by June, and plans to have the hotel and apartments open by March 2018, according to Steve Virostek, co-founder and principal of Triumph Partners.
The Affordability of Market Rate
Virostek’s approach to fill the housing gap, however, is unique in that only six of the units will be income deed restricted as affordable housing, one unit for every seven potential hotel employees. The rest of the units are intended to be market rate units targeted toward the “missing middle,” or people who make too much to be accepted into lower income deed restricted housing, but have trouble finding housing in Truckee’s strained market. The proposed rent prices for the project point toward those making 80 percent to 120 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), which in Truckee was determined to be $72,156, according to the 2016 Regional Housing Study.
What is the real median income of the worker base in the Tahoe Truckee region? Sure there is a need for what is proposed but a better mix of lower income needs to be part of the equation.