Cole Burkland of Trisco Systems Inc. works on sealing the rear fire escape at the Metro Center building in downtown Lima.
Craig Kelly | The Lima News
LIMA — There have been significant changes to the Lima/Allen County region in recent years. With the help of new funding and investors, much of the region’s dream and hope is set to come true. The City of Lima has had many conversations on improving and developing new ways to invest in our city. How does this become possible? How do we make such dreams a reality? How do we retain our youth? One answer is a vision.
Creating the vision for housing and youth retention
Over the past few years, the city has developed a plan to walk out for the next 20 years. A new vision plan has not been created since the 1950s, meaning a new vision was long overdue.
Organizations like the Lima/Allen County Regional Planning Commission have focused on developing an overall plan for regions and cities alike.
The LACRPC does not approach this alone of course. It takes many different entities and efforts to make a vision come to pass. One primary goal of the plan is housing infrastructure and development to attract and retain younger people.
Looking at the stats: Why do we need the vision?
“Every comprehensive plan will look at infrastructure, demographics, utilities and the rest will be the part that we tailored towards the vision of the community,” said Cody Doyle of LACRPC. “We try and figure out what are some of the common narratives that go on around Lima and are those actually true. One of the things we want to do is to encourage young people to relocate here. They also want to hold onto the young people that already are here. We looked at population data for the city and we specifically parsed it out for Lima, not the entire county. People born after 1985 are staying home at a much higher rate than people that are born before 1985. While it used to be true that Lima did not hold onto youth as well as it would like to, we have been doing better. The other part of the battle is how do we get people to move here that are not even from here? Lima’s overall population has been falling since at least 2000 and before that.”
The LACRPC provided additional statistics. According to the Vision 2040 plan, if a person was ten years old in 2000, the number of his or her peers in 2020 dropped from 6,150 to 5,480, a loss of 11%. The older age group experienced a much sharper decline. The cohort fell from 6,600 to 4,200 in that same 20 years. Those 2,400 residents (born 1976-1985) represented a staggering 40% of the entire population loss from 2000-2020.
Potential obstacles
According to a recent article by Stessa Roofstock Company, mortgage interest rates have increased dramatically since the start of 2022 adding hundreds of dollars to prospective borrowers’ monthly mortgage payments. Persistently high inflation over the last year is eating into household budgets, leaving less money available to put toward a home purchase.
A local real estate agent weighed in.
“Just recently it was a seller’s market and people were paying appraisal gaps,” said Stacia Allen, Real Estate Agent for CCR Realtors. “Now it is still a seller’s market because the inventory is low for buyers which is good for sellers. It is better for buyers because people are not paying those appraisal gaps like before. The interest rate has risen. During COVID they lowered it, but raising it was the government’s way of trying to balance the market.”
As many young adults begin to make decisions on housing and the perfect location, additional barriers often arise. Some include school district preference and a preference for renting as opposed to purchasing a home.
“Everyone that I have talked to wants to move in Shawnee and Elida school districts,” added Allen. “I think the biggest thing is that our generation is content with just paying rent. We do not look at the long run. We do not look at the assets because it is an investment. Some people are not aware because they think it is impossible to obtain a home and it really is not. There are so many resources such as WOCAP and various banks in the city. WOCAP will give up to $6,000 towards closing costs for first-time homebuyers. With an FHA First Time Homebuyers loan, your credit score could be as low as 580 and with a conventional loan, your credit score could be 620.”
New developments: Road to overcoming
In addition to residents making a choice to purchase land and invest in the city, Doyle also emphasized the importance of private investors. No one person nor city official can walk out this vision on their own. For those who desire to rent, local developers such as Trisco Systems Inc. focus on the aesthetic of downtown living appealing to youth and young professionals.
“The owners (Trisco Systems Inc.) purchased the building in 2001 with the intent of having office spaces,” said Kelly Martino, Building Manager of Metro Centre. “Since then it has kind of developed into not really needing office spaces. Some downtown Lima groups reached out to them saying we need some residential living for the professionals that come in and out of our area. Would you be willing to transform this building into residential housing? In addition to residential, there will be five commercial spaces on the first floor that are not yet complete. I would love to see a small grocery store and deli, not to only serve our residents but also our downtown. So people that are working downtown or tenants can grab something and go. We would also like to see a hair salon or a little boutique. Something that will compliment what we already have downtown.”
A Trisco Systems Inc. developer shared his inspiration for the project.
“We kind of mimicked some old apartment buildings from the Chicago, Cleveland and Cincinnati markets,” added Steve Walter, CEO of Trisco Systems Inc. “I had a couple of kids living in those markets and my brother had a couple of kids living in those markets so we saw what a lot of these buildings could look like. We went for that industrial loft-style apartment. Everything is open fixtures, open duct work service mounted conduit. It gives it that old industrial feel. The walls are brick and plaster. Right now out of 33 apartments, we only have seven available today.”
Region-wide vision
In addition to the City of Lima, many cities and regions are transforming their space to be more appealing to the youth. Housing is one of many ways to attract the younger generation.
“We are working with Bluffton to write a comprehensive plan as we speak,” said Doyle. “They are in a different spot than Lima. Lima is looking more to revitalize its downtown and a lot of focus is going into that. Bluffton is in a good spot in their downtown. It is smaller and easier to maintain but we see the same trends. Both want more young people to live and move there (downtown/city regions). We want to create an overall environment that keeps young people around. That will be the fight everywhere as baby boomers age. It will be how do we attract people that are earning and have money to spend. Revenue makes the city go around.”
