Habitat for Humanity Project on Davies Street in Mayfield Receives Final Approval
Organization will build six new affordable homes in the community, starting next year.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Rev. Hashmel Turner has been looking forward to meeting his new neighbors for years—and next spring, he will finally be able to.
Around the corner from Turner’s house in the Mayfield neighborhood, Davies Street dead-ends into a wooded area owned by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fredericksburg.
Here, the organization has received final approval from the city to build a cul-de-sac and six affordable homes—homes that Turner, a 50-year-resident of the neighborhood, said will “help to support some of our local teachers and first responders, or maybe a single mother.”
“We are super happy to be at this point where we are doing what we were meant to do—provide affordable housing,” Jayne Johnson, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Fredericksburg, told the Advance. “It really does change lives.”
In remarks to City Council during public comment period on Tuesday, Mary Beth Rich, president of Habitat’s board of directors, said, “This is what can happen when public officials, staff, and community partners share the same goal of strengthening our city.”
Hugh Cosner, a well-known local developer, gifted the 19-acre parcel that runs between Mayfield and Railroad Avenue, adjacent to the Fredericksburg Fairgrounds, to Habitat in 2016. The next year, Habitat created five lots at the end of South Street and subsequently built five houses which are now occupied.
The organization had hoped to be able to build 17 more homes on the parcel, but scaled back to six due to restrictions posed by the perennial stream runs across the south-western corner of the property. Approximately 14 of the 19 acres are considered “wetlands” and are protected from development by state and local code because they drain into the Chesapeake Bay.
Habitat and its engineering firm had informal conversations with the city about the Davies Street project starting in 2022 and then spent about a year working with the city to tweak the plan so that it did not disturb any of the protected areas.
In April, Rich addressed City Council to ask for help in getting the project approved.
“That conversation was not only heard—it became the catalyst for what followed,” Rich said Tuesday. “After that meeting, cooperative efforts accelerated. Because of the commitment of this Council, the dedication of city staff, and the willingness of so many partners to come together, we now celebrate reaching a true milestone: full approval for six affordable homes in our Habitat community of Canterbury, within the Mayfield neighborhood.”
Habitat had a deadline of August 29 to submit an application for a $700,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development that required a final, approved plat.
“[The city] knew our deadline and they had people working on the weekend and working late hours,” Rich told the Advance. “It was a heroic effort. They put everybody on call and they were integral to making it happen.”
Habitat will begin accepting applications for the six new homes in January, Johnson said. In order to qualify for the organization’s homeownership program, applicants must have a total household income that falls between 30-80% of the area median family income as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—which for a family of four is between $49,170 and $131.120.
Qualifying applicants must also be experiencing at least one of the following, according to Habitat’s website:
Unsafe surrounding environment
Income disparity
Residing in temporary housing
Overcrowding
Rent burdened (paying more than 30% of monthly income on rent)
Heating, electrical, plumbing or structural deficiencies
Once approved for a home, prospective owners have to put in 300 to 400 hours of “sweat equity,” or volunteer work, which can include working on the construction site, attending homeownership and financial literacy classes, or volunteering in the Habitat office or at special events.
Habitat will hold a presentation on the homeownership program at the Mayfield Community Center on October 16.
“We’ll be talking about your application process to make sure that everyone in the community who wants to can apply,” Johnson said.
The Davies Street homes will be two- or three-bedrooms and are modular. They are constructed in a warehouse in Wylliesburg, Virginia, and arrive at the site between 75-80% complete. Volunteers will then put on shingles, lay flooring, paint, and complete other final assembly tasks.
The houses will probably be built two at a time, starting after Habitat has begun construction of the Davies Street extension, which will occur in the next four to six months, Johnson said.
Rich is already thinking ahead to what the organization can do with the remaining 14 acres of the Cosner property. She’d love to see a nature trail with historic panels and tree and bird identification guides, and perhaps a pollinator garden.
“We want the commuity to know that we’re not leaving,” Rich said. “We’re there.”
And that makes Turner happy.
“I’m anticipating the new neighbors and looking forward to the growth,” he said.
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