Next phase of Homestead’s Fawn Valley project moving forward after 10 month delay
By Tim Rowland
After a 10-month delay, the nonprofit Homestead Development Corp. of Lake Placid can finally begin selling 16 affordable townhouses that were completed in 2023 but had to wait for a final sign-off from the New York Attorney General’s office.
“We weren’t even allowed to advertise them,” said Steve Sama, president of Homestead and a contractor who volunteered much of his time working on the Fawn Valley project on Wesvalley Road.
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The unanticipated delay has added $10,000 to the cost of the townhomes, in a project where affordability is the name of the game and many creative solutions — such as leaving the top floor of each unit unfinished — were employed to keep the sales price manageable.
In a zip code where the average home-sales price is in excess of $700,000, the townhomes will sell for between $180,000 and $200,000.
Sama said some, but not all of the townhouses have been spoken for, and urged those who are interested to apply immediately. An open house is scheduled for May 23 at Fawn Valley from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Interested buyers are encouraged to visit homesteadadk.org/townhouses for more information and to complete an application. Maximum income restrictions, resale and residency restrictions apply.
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Eight of the homes are targeted toward school employees and health care workers — essential professional occupations whose salaries aren’t high enough to play in today’s housing market.
A long process
As the North Country housing crisis became more acute in the wake of the pandemic, Homestead was among the first to offer a successful model for affordability. The project included townhouses and free-standing homes that were within the budgets of middle-class workers. The free-standing homes have been sold and occupied, but the rest of the development ground to a halt as Homestead waited for the AG’s office to approve the townhouse homeowners association.
The delay frustrated both the nonprofit and townhouse applicants who had hoped that occupation of their new homes in the Fawn Valley development were imminent. It also illustrates a frequent problem among Adirondack governments and agencies that, unlike their urban and suburban brethren, lack the staff it takes to be constantly shuffling documents.
Sama said the required paperwork involved specifications on everything from lightbulbs and flooring to pipe diameter and wiring amperage. “They review every single, possible item,” Sama said. “We’d answer their questions and then at the end of the month get a letter of deficiency.”
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Sama said the AG’s office was following the law, but the state’s regulations can seem both endless and pointless in terms of paperwork. One 20-page document had to be filled out, but then simultaneously cross referenced with engineering and architectural plans.
Sama estimated Homestead spent 200 hours trying to comply with state requests.
The role of nonprofits in housing work
Lori Bellingham, vice president of community impact for the Adirondack Foundation, which was involved in the project, praised the development and advocated for the process to be streamlined.
“We are extremely grateful that we have nonprofit builders trying to step in and address workforce housing, including multi-family projects in our hamlets,” she said. “We need to make sure to work with and encourage them, and avoid unnecessarily stressing their capacity to bring units to the market with onerous and costly administrative compliance.”
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Fawn Valley, which has 22 homes in all, is a groundbreaking development brought about through multiple partners and cost saving measures that included grants, philanthropy, local financing, volunteerism and the donation of the land on which the development is located.
Coming up next
A second Homestead development, Fox Hill, is planned for Algonquin Drive in Lake Placid, Sama said. It will include six two-bedroom ranch-style homes, 10 two-bedroom cape-style homes, and six cape-style homes with finished attics.
One thing it will not include, Sama said, is a homeowners association.
Photo at top: Emily Kilburn-Politi at the Fawn Valley development in Lake Placid. She sits on the board of Homestead Development Corporation, a not for profit formed to build affordable housing. Photo by Eric Teed
About this series
Adirondack Explorer is highlighting the region’s housing challenges, with a multi-part series running in our magazine and online. Award-winning Freelance Journalist Tim Rowland investigates causes of the housing shortage, housing’s effects on other aspects of Adirondack life, hacks that people use to get into a home and potential solutions being tried here and elsewhere. His reporting is based on review of real estate data, documents and extensive interviews.
How many of these will end up being purchased for STRs? Do they remain affordable in perpetuity? How long before they can be resold by original buyer.