Grayville Looking to Add Dozens of Clayton Homes within City; Increases Natural Gas Rates Monday Night

Clayton Homes growth is substantial according to a company representative and if the company and the City of Grayville can come to an agreement, it could mean 15 – 30 new homes.  Steve Brandt, a real estate developer for Clayton spoke to Council Monday night and says while in it’s preliminary stages, development looks possible in an area that comes out to about 9 acres in total split up amongst 3 tracts.  Clayton with help from Rex Gower from Milano and Grunloh has done some initial work they call a lot yield analysis.

“What Clayton is doing here, and all over the country actually, is actively seeking raw land opportunities where we can provide a spec lot home package for home buyers that are coming in our doors.  What happens a lot of times is folks love our product; they come in, they love the home but they don’t have land to put it on.”

The pilot phase if the agreement comes to fruition would be north of Gray Street.

“It’s kind of chunked into 3 thirds; 3 pieces of land that are roughly 2 1/2 – 3 acres per parcel.  So what we thought we could maybe consider is if we were to phase the improvements as an option, to start with the tract that’s on the north side of Gray.  We haven’t done a full engineering study, but we did what we refer to a lot yield analysis so we discussed what existing zoning is or what would be acceptable, what would be marketable from our side that would work for both sides of the equation.”

Commissioner Andi Ford at this point is on board.

“I like the idea.  I’m just going to come out and say it.  I don’t know what our commitment would be but I know we need homes, we need people.  As someone who’s getting ready to start a new business, it’s hard to draw people into town when there’s no place to live.  And it’s hard to hire people from out of town because then there’s a commute and a reliability issue.  So, I think it sounds like a great idea.  I hope we can come up with something that’s going to please everybody.”

There’s still much more groundwork to be laid before the project can move forward.  Brandt says he expects individual homes with the land to be priced at around $200,000.

In other news Monday night, Grayville will see an increase in rates for natural gas.  Commissioner Scott Browning says the last natural gas increase was in 2017 and as much as he’s not a fan of increases, this was unavoidable.  The price is going up 25 cents per unit which Browning says should amount to $6 – $8 per month for most residents.  Mayor Travis Thompson added…

“We’re increasing natural gas rates.  We’re increasing water and sewer rates.  The way you get those to stay low is by increasing the sale of water, gas, and sewer.  That is by bringing in business and households.  Things are trending in the right direction for our community.  I hope that as a group that we’re not short-sighted and turn down the opportunity to sell more gas as the previous council did on a pet crematory.  So keep in mind when you’re making decisions on some things that prevent the sale of water, gas, and sewer.”

City Attorney Jay Walden added context saying it’s not only important to increase bodies and business in Grayville, but also for the city to make sure it’s covering it’s cost of doing business.

“You just have to understand; in conjunction with what the mayor said, you have to be real careful with that because if I’m selling more units and each unit I’m losing money when I sell it, then I’m actually going in the opposite direction.  So be very careful about that mayor as far as thinking about…more does not always necessarily mean increased funding.  If that per unit price is not sufficient, you lose money, you don’t gain money, so be aware of that.”

Additionally Monday night, the city avoided giving a raise to employee Greg O’Neal despite discussing it with him for about 25 minutes, approved a TIF request for Grayville Liquor Lake, renewed Risk Management Insurance, tabled a new bulk water station preferring to place that expenditure in the budget next year, and agreed to spend $110,240 on a new city pool liner.  A thirty minute executive session was sandwiched within the in total 2 hour meeting with no action to follow.  Grayville leaders next convene on November 13^th.