Officials recommend rezoning

Talk about it

A plan to construct 44 low-income housing units is moving along after Dickinson officials recommended approving a rezone at a Wednesday meeting at City Hall.

The request is to rezone land from community commercial to residential high density, to accommodate Section 8 housing. Nearby land is already zoned as needed.

The recommendation, handed down by Dickinson Planning and Zoning Commission members, is expected to be discussed at a Dickinson City Commission meeting later this month, said Shawn Soehren, city engineer.

Soehren believes it will take two readings for the change, with final approval in April.

Gary Stenson, president of St. Paul, Minn.-based MetroPlains Development, LLC, the company behind the proposed Section 8 housing, said in a previous Press article there would be 44 units split up mainly into two-bedroom townhomes and a few three-bedroom units. The units would be constructed on three sites in the northern portion of town.

Stenson said the maximum family income for the new townhomes would most likely be less than $35,000 per year.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is reviewing materials related to the Section 8 housing, he added.

“I would guess we’d probably know what the regional office in Denver decided later this month,” Stenson said Wednesday. “They have to send their recommendation to Washington, D.C., to the national office to get it approved, so that’s probably April or May.”

The next Dickinson City Commission meeting is March 15 at 5:15 p.m., in Dickinson City Hall, 99 Second St. E.

Tags: section 8, news, local, metroplains, rezoning