Goosefoot is in the process of purchasing two adjoining lots in the city of Langley for a future affordable housing project, the nonprofit group reported Monday.
The lots, which are owned by Cally and JR Fulton, are located across from the Machine Shop at the corner of Second Street and DeBruyn Avenue. The plan is to build affordable, multi-family rental units on the property.
Goosefoot will not be the developer but will hold the property in trust until a nonprofit developer is identified, according to a statement from Goosefoot.
An anonymous couple gifted Goosefoot half of the $600,000 sale price. The Fultons are giving the nonprofit until March 2023 to raise the remaining balance, which is crucial to sealing the deal.
“We trust Goosefoot to do everything they can to realize the vision we’ve had of siting affordable housing on this property,” Cally Fulton said in a press release. “We’re ecstatic that they stepped up to help us realize our long-held dream.”
Sandra Whiting, Goosefoot’s executive director, is pleased a deal could be worked out.
“This remarkable collaboration between private individuals and Goosefoot could be the key to making more affordable housing projects happen on South Whidbey,” she said. “Our community will need to step up and address the housing crisis together. Otherwise the inconveniences we now face with food services, locating tradespeople and conducting day to day business will seem like child’s play.”
Goosefoot has been promoting affordable housing for nearly 20 years. Launched in 2000, the “house-cycling moving program” matched 13 landowners with homes destined for demolition due to new construction projects. In 2008, Goosefoot’s request to Island County for a zoning variance to build multi-family housing on property it owned at Bayview Corner was denied.
As the lack of housing reached crisis proportion, the organization began looking at properties in the Bayview Rural Area of Intensive Development, or RAID, where multi-family housing and mixed-use developments are allowed.
In October 2020, Goosefoot worked with a group of Bayview RAID landowners to look at the possibility of building affordable multi-family housing in the area. In November 2021, results from a feasibility study commissioned by Goosefoot were informative, but solutions to septic infrastructure and its affordability have not yet been resolved.
Officials at Goosefoot decided to re-group to decide what the next short-term steps should be to increase affordable housing on the island.
“Our Bayview Vision collaboration and feasibility study provided an important learning opportunity on the challenges and realities of developing affordable housing,” said Chris Salomone, Goosefoot’s board president and former community development director for the city of Bellevue. “This land purchase, with all necessary infrastructure in place, will allow us to advance the goal of providing affordable housing.”
With regard to Bayview, “nothing is off the table,” Salomone said. “We mustn’t lose sight of the opportunities those properties offer in terms of location, services and access to public transportation.”
