DOWAGIAC — Saturday morning, several local homeowners, real estate agents and developers crowded into the backroom of the Cass County Council on Aging Front Street Crossing and watched as Mayor Don Lyons and City Manager Kevin Anderson flipped through a PowerPoint presentation showcasing improvements the city had made over the last 20 years.

Now, Lyons said, it is time for a new improvement, this time in the area of housing. 

“Over the last 20 years, over $200 million has been invested in quality of life from the public and private sector,” Lyons said. “What’s the one thing that is missing? Housing.”

During Saturday’s meeting, Lyons and Anderson announced a new initiative that will encourage the building of new and energy efficient homes in the area. The city will incentivize construction by offering free land, free building plan review, and free water, sewer and electrical connections.

On average, the city demolishes six units a year, and the new initiative would aim to replace those houses. As a jumping off point, the city has committed to developing the city-owned lot behind Donald Lyons Health Center, which has enough property to support eight potential units.

“It’s critical we start replacing the properties we are taking down,” Lyons said. “If we don’t, enough years down the line, the city won’t exist. That wouldn’t happen in 100 years, but it might in 200 years. We have got to start replacing these homes.”

Both anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that there is a market to support the new housing initiative and that there has been a lack of housing in the area for years, Anderson and Lyons said in their presentation. A target market and housing analysis commissioned by the city suggested that there is room for the city to build 12 new housing units a year, twice the city’s rate of demolition. The study also showed that many workers commute to Dowagiac and that the city is in a desirable area as it is a short distance from many major cities such as Kalamazoo or South Bend.

“There is a pent-up demand that has been building for some time,” Anderson said. “We want to meet the need. … We have a big challenge ahead of us, but we are all in. If we can make something like this happen, it is the kind of thing that can make a difference in our community for generations and generations — if we can put back into place where we are helping to put back in where we are taking housing out.”

Following the meeting, several in attendance expressed support for the initiative including real estate agents who said they saw a definite need for more housing in the area and lenders with Honor Credit Union who said they were interested in helping individuals with financing for the project.

“This is the first time we have gotten all of the key players into one room and said, ‘what do you think?’” Lyons said. “I’m overwhelmed by the response. We thought we would do well, but we did better than we thought. We got a resounding vote of approval.”

So far, there is no definitive timeline for the housing project, but Lyons said he hopes to see a few projects break ground at the lot behind Donald Lyons Health Center by the end of summer. The city will also soon launch a marketing campaign to promote the project.

Those interested in getting involved with the initiative can call City Manager Kevin Anderson’s office at (269) 783-2530.