Between 2014 and 2015, the city of Tipton issued more housing demolition permits than building permits, a trend that mayor Don Havens believes will turn around in 2016.
Havens said his optimism comes from a number of building permits that have recently been issued.
Havens said contractors have expressed some interest in Tipton, with a builder from Lafayette interested in putting in three units on the west side of town, and a separate contractor applied for three more permits issued for condo units on the southeast side of town. Another property went up on Tipton’s South Main Street.
Havens also said in the past month or two, he has received two visits from developers and builders interested in Tipton.
The demand for new housing has gone up, which Havens attributes to three different factors. First, the area has a low unemployment rate. Havens estimated the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plant has about 1,000 jobs, although the plant does not release the actual numbers.
The second is the new interchange being built at the intersection of U.S. 31 and Indiana 28. Havens said this will lessen travel time to and from Tipton.
The third is development in Hamilton County to the south of Tipton. Havens said development there could make for crowded schools and congested roads, and might make families look for a smaller community to move to, so they can live in a small town and commute to work in a more crowded one. Havens called counties like his a second tier county.
Havens said Tipton has not been able to create a local speculative housing network since the housing market crash in 2007 and 2008. He said they were not able to find buyers then, and that situation remained the same until about 2014.
In 2015, Havens said, Tipton started to see a demand for existing housing, and officials were able to foresee demand for new housing was not far behind that.
Havens has a couple of plans to incentivize home building in the area. One is an abatement program for housing he hopes to carve out in detail in the next two months.
“I have most of the details pretty well fleshed out in my own mind now,” said Havens. He added he has spoken with a couple different council members, and is in the process of drafting a plan that the council will find reasonable.
He estimated the abatement plan would run for three to five years, and the money would amass to the benefit of the homeowners.
“People are more inclined to be able to develop a vision of themselves and their family in a spec house than they are working with a builder on a contract house,” said Havens. He added that is especially true if the buyers are on their first or second house.
In May, during his state of the city address, Havens said he was working on an annexation program, which he said is still in the works.
According to Havens, the city has hired an annexation consultant, an annexation attorney and an annexation financial analyst on an as needed basis. However, they still have to map out how and where the annexation will take place.
Havens said he is unwilling to go forward with that plan until they have established which areas have the highest probability for success.
“We’re in good shape as a community,” said Havens. “I think we’ve got some good opportunity.”