A Plan to Build Affordable, Sustainable Housing Presented
On Monday, July 8th, 2024 at 7:00 p.m. Cambridge City Council met at city hall for their monthly meeting. All members were in attendance except Delray Platt who was absent. After approving the current agenda, they moved forward with a HECO engineer report on transportation, streets, roads, water, and wastewater. Unfortunately, no new information was provided in this regard because certain members of the HECO team were unable to attend.
The next item on the agenda was the Action item - J-U-B Engineer, Inc. Design for Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) Sidewalks. Council members were required to approve the design plan based on last month’s open house; with one comment from a local business, council members decided to proceed and approve the design plans. The next Action Item was to approve the Wastewater Facility Plan with a Preferred Alternative. At this point, a member of Heco Engineers spoke to discuss the additional alternative they included in the wastewater facility draft, which was the combination of the SAGR treatment system and the movement of the outfall to the Weiser River. Ph levels of the Weiser River were discussed, as it is currently at a pH of 8.73. They will be collecting more data on this hopefully within the next month. Council members approved the plan with alternative plan #4.
After that was a presentation put together by Darin Braun and associates on the current housing crisis in Cambridge. He gave a very heartwarming speech on his history with the town and how so much has changed throughout the years. He spoke of the amazing people within the community that band together to make things happen. He then asked the question, what is the number one challenge in operating a company in Cambridge? Finding qualified applicants and why can’t they? The lack of housing in our town. Many people are affected by this situation, they have to commute long distances or even live in RVs. Other variables that are affecting the housing shortage are dilapidated houses, vacation rentals, destroyed houses, and seasonal houses. There is a lack of quality homes, unavailability of homes, and also the fact lot prices are very costly. He knows finding a solution isn’t as easy as snapping your fingers, so they have already started a radical plan to see if we can overcome the challenges and the government red tape. He asked, “Why wait for an affluent out-of-towner to come and take control of the future of Cambridge and become subservient to its dictates? Why wait for an affluent out-of-towner to show up and build affordable housing in our town where they use government grants to build apartments but then they tell you who you are allowed to rent to? People with jobs make too much money to qualify.” Darin says it makes more sense for the locals to be in control of their own social engineering and not the government or outsiders. Darin Braun and his associates have gone forward with all haste and have purchased the destroyed property of 175 N 1st St. They plan to tear down the existing structure. Next, they are starting a limited liability company, locally controlled, and owned by interested investors, Copper Ridge LLC.
As a group they have drawn inspiration from one of the newest high-end developments in Boise, Harrison Ranch builds a community around the idea of sustainability, they are nice houses with very small yards to water and maintain. With small lot sizes in Cambridge that are narrow and deep, they believe to have found the solutions. They intend to build 3 new stick-built houses that are 1,800 sq ft, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, central air, single car garage, driveway parking, and patio. They will be submitting 3 variance requests to the City of Cambridge to be able to make this happen. It is their plan to keep these homes as affordable rentals. The City Council members applauded the group on their creative housing solution.
The next item on the agenda was the Infiltration & Inflow ( I & I ) Study and the HECO Engineer member spoke again and gave a brief explanation of what I & I is. It is essentially rainwater, groundwater, or other water sources entering into wastewater lines and decreasing the efficiency of the wastewater treatment facility. In Cambridge, the original system, which was a project completed in 2017/2018, replaced the majority of the pipes, significantly reducing the I & I problem. The current study was to look at selected areas of the town that had not been replaced or updated in 2017/2018. Back in May, a company did a closed circuit television camera through all the pipes in those areas to look for any cracks, missing pipes, or leaking joints. In three cases there was a significant amount of I & I that are getting into the pipes. It was advised that these main three stretches ought to be upgraded in the future. They are the same areas of primary focus in the Wastewater Facility plan. With this, they will be able to fix the areas that need it while remaining in compliance with DQ. The study was approved by the City Council.
Then City Clerk Sandra McKee discussed the tentative budget for 2024-2025 FY2025 and it was approved by council members. Next, Sandra McKee discussed a report on the new utility billing portal for residents, which was much needed as it is very user-friendly. People will have a lot more options in paying their bills. You’ll be able to pay through a debt or credit card, checking, or savings account, and an autopay option. Also, the Museum MOA on Dixie Creek Bridge is completed and the City of Cambridge will get a $60,000 grant for re-finishing the museum roof. Then the mining on Cuddy Mountain was discussed, and according to a recent Town Hall meeting with Hercules Metal Corp., many other mining companies are laying claim, as Hercules Metal Corp. owns only 800 of the 6,000 claims. One of these companies is Zeus Mining CO. Not much is known about any of these other mining companies.
The meeting was then adjourned.
