Oct. 22--John Holzhuter, secretary of the board of the Neighborhood Renaissance Foundation, came to the City Council last night asking them what they would like to see at the proposed Center Heights addition.

Council members said they'd like to see discussion at the committee level and resurrected a committee like the one that originally worked with developers on the project about two years ago.

Council Justin Begnoche, who originally served on that committee, and Councilwoman McKenna Porter agreed to serve on the new committee.

Holzhuter said the Neighborhood Renaissance Foundation got in on the project thinking that all the work had been done except for the funding piece, but it turns out much more work will be required.

"It's not what we expected," he said.

He also said what has been proposed, mostly low-income housing and higher end single-family housing "does not feel right" for Clay Center because the low-income housing would eliminate people who make too much from buying them and the city already has empty higher-end homes that are for sale.

Neighborhood Renaissance Foundation, a not-for-profit group, has incentive to build because they are sitting on a $300,000 property with loans borrowed from USDA Rural Development that are coming due. The group wants to be sure they are building a product that will not only sell, but one that will fit well with the city.

"The next couple of months we've got to figure out exactly what the city wants and what is good for the city," Holzhuter said. "We want to make sure we're not giving the city anything (its residents) don't want."

The group intends to build a mixture of rental property and houses that people want to buy, with a handful of upper-end homes to make it a good neighborhood, he said.

"I want to see something happen," Holzhuter told the council. "What we intend to provide is not just low income housing, you're already saturated with that; but market-rate houses--rental homes are a big chunk, good deal of that market ... Secondly we want to build market base starter homes -- 15 small houses that are 15,000 to 17,000 square feet, and five mid-sized home that are 18,000 to 23,000 square feet. We'll have some low income housing, but it will be less than what was originally planned."

As a not-for-profit group, Neighborhood Renaissance Foundation is precluded from making more than a 1 percent profit from the homes, Holzhuter said. The group is used to building small homes and the type of mid-sized homes built for Habitat for Humanity.