Elyria low-income apartment plan seeks conditional use

After being selected for a crucial federal tax credit, a North Carolina development company is requesting a conditional use permit from Elyria to make its planned 122-unit apartment building possible. Black River Forge, previously called Black River Landing but renamed after initial planning, is a proposed low-to-moderate income apartment building that will be located on West River Road North near its intersection with Griswold Road. South Creek Development LLC, of North Carolina, plans to turn the vacant lot into a 122-unit apartment building that will cost an estimated $40.4 million to build. On Monday, South Creek representative Taylor Koch of Hill Tide Partners went before City Council's Community Development Committee to request a conditional use permit from the city to allow the developer to build the apartment. The 6.8-acre parcel on which the proposed project would be built is zoned as a business-neighborhood district, meaning that multifamily housing requires a conditional use permit if it includes more than three housing units. The committee voted 4-0 on Monday in favor of recommending approval of the request to City Council as a whole. Council will consider the proposal at its next meeting on Monday. Before the vote, Councilwomen Mary Siwierka, D-3rd Ward, and Brenda Davis, D-2nd Ward, expressed concerns about traffic that may be created at the intersection with Griswold Road by the addition of so many residents nearby. Neither of them are on the Community Development committee, but they were present at the meeting. "I do have a concern about the traffic in that area," Davis said. "Hopefully we can do a traffic study with this added apartment, and I am looking at two cars per apartment, maybe. If a(traffic) light could be added there, it's something to be considered. It is something to be concerned about, and I am." Koch argued that a traffic light would probably not be necessary because the intersection handled heavier and more regular traffic when the Midway Mall was fully open years ago. "Residential traffic is pretty predictable, it is usually at 8 a.m. and then at 5 p.m. that you will see folks entering and leaving," Koch said "We don't generate constant traffic like a retail store or gas station, and when the mall was fully operational there was not a traffic light at that intersection. There will be an increase of traffic, but it still would not be comparable to what you had when the mall was fully operational." He also said that the developers were expecting roughly 0.7 cars per unit for the single apartments, and between one and two cars for the two- and three-bedroom units. Because of this, Koch said, the developer planned to request a variance from the city allowing it to build 1.7 parking spots per unit, rather than the 2 spots per unit required by city code. "It is still really robust, we will probably have a lot of empty spots there even with that," he said. Swierka also expressed concerns about how the development would affect a wooded area at the rear of the property, in part because she said it could drive wild animals into residential areas. Koch said that the designs he presented were still early in the development stage, and the company planned to condense the proposed site of the building and parking to avoid the rear of the lot due to the trees, steep topography and proximity to wetlands of that area. "(There are) three reasons why we want to stay away from that as much as you would want us to stay away from that," Koch said. "I can share with you that we are going through iterations of the site plan with our architect. We just heard a month ago that we were funded, so now we are moving full steam ahead. Once we have the next iteration, I think it will be the final iteration of the site plan." The project will receive a 4 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credit, or LIHTC, which was granted through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency. To obtain those federal tax credits, the project will be reserved for residents and families making at or below 60 percent of the area median income, or AMI. AMI is similar to household median income, but is calculated slightly differently by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development based on household size and geographic area, Lorain County is in the Elyria-Cleveland Housing Market Area, which also includes Cuyahoga, Medina, Geauga and Lake counties. As of 2024, 60 percent of the area median income for that area was $40,860 for one person. For a household of four, 60 percent of the AMI was $58,320. Black River Forge is planned to have 12 one-bedroom units, 74 two-bedroom units and 36 three-bedroom units. Koch has said the projected rents were roughly $968 for the one-bedroom units, $1,177 for the two-bedroom units and $1,422 for a three-bedroom. If the conditional use permit is approved by Council, the project will still need to undergo several more rounds of review and approvals. Koch has said that South Creek hopes to start work on the project in late 2026. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.