Housing Symposium slated for Wednesday

It is no secret that Greencastle and all of Putnam County finds itself at a crossroads when it comes to available housing, and leaders are ready to sit and have a discussion about what future housing needs will look like.

That discussion will take place Wednesday, April 23, as the Putnam County Housing Steering Committee, the Greencastle/Putnam County Development Center, Capital Stacker and Thrive West Central will conduct a housing symposium at the Putnam County YMCA from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. 

Greencastle mayor Lynda Dunbar said the conversations leading up to the symposium have been interesting and have been a great learning experience. 

"What we will kind of talk about is what the demand looks like in Putnam County, not just in Greencastle. It falls heavily into Greencastle, because we are the county seat. We will look at what the anticipated growth will look like in the next five years, what kind of housing is needed based on what kind of folks will be coming in and it is interesting to see the breakdown of our population. Come on out and find out what the potential is for housing in Putnam County," Dunbar told The Putnam County Post. 

Dunbar said those involved have learned the county lacks quite a bit when it comes to singles and young adults. 

"It is, possibly, because we don't have a lot of apartments and entry level coming in. It becomes a domino effect. We also don't have very many retirement areas, so we don't have empty nesters getting into their golden years thinking about here because there is no place for them to go and they can't give up their homes. We need apartments, senior living and the inbetween, but we don't have a good mix to turn over housing to keep the flow of housing going in the community," Dunbar said. 

The mayor said there is plenty of land available across the county to put more housing in. 

"Every community can take some housing. We have some land here in Greencastle, and our utilities can handle it, as well," Dunbar said. 

While the symposium will address needs, Dunbar acknowledges it could get very "tricky" moving forward in the wake of property tax reform in Indiana. 

"Housing is now getting a little trickier because of the property tax reform. I think you will see that industry slow as it costs us money now to build and bring people into our communities. I don't know what they were thinking as they don't understand the impact of property taxes and adding new population to our cities because it costs us money to add new population. It will be interesting. We do need housing because there are people who want to come to our community. We need to increase some of our population here in Greencastle, but, yet, still keep the small town feel. That has been the thing we want to keep. We aren't going to go crazy, so don't think all of a sudden it will go crazy, but we will see some growth in the community," Dunbar said.