This is opinion and commentary.
A presentation by consultants hired to assist Williamsburg with its comprehensive planning process touched on a simmering issue about the future of housing in the city. As debate heats up and the issue comes to a boil, the question isn’t whether more housing will be built, but for whom.
One aspect of the consultants’ job is gathering public input and over 140 community members (not just city residents) participated in surveys recently collected at events like the farmers market and locations like the downtown library. Multiple responses from those sessions were highlighted, including how some participants finished the statement “My wish for Williamsburg is...”
“More affordable housing!! I live in Current Midtown, right now my rent occupies 70% of my graduate stipend.”
“To maintain a broad range of housing including nice smaller homes for seniors to downsize but still in ‘luxury.’”
Students dominate the rental housing market and the rental market is a huge piece of the overall housing landscape. Meeting the growing need for affordable rental housing, particularly for students living off campus, is both a stated goal and major challenge for the College of William & Mary and Williamsburg. The rub is that the city also wants to attract and keep well-heeled professionals and retirees who can pay premium prices for premier locations. A reader once pointed out that all housing is affordable to someone, and given the choice, it seems like developers would prefer to build luxury options in Williamsburg.
Williamsburg currently has several ways to participate in the comprehensive planning process: Take the community survey | Become a Community Ambassador
It’s no secret that attending college these days is expensive, even at state schools like William & Mary. Housing costs often eat up the bulk of students’ funds, as lamented in the comment above. Even recent development catering to students, like Current Midtown, isn’t considered affordable by many of its residents. But how do the costs of living in Williamsburg compare to other state schools? One of the firms hired by the city publishes a statistic measuring off campus Market Median Room & Board (9 months). They peg the typical cost for William & Mary students at $9,165, which is less than George Mason ($12,801), University of Virginia ($9,520), Mary Washington ($9,457) and Virginia Commonwealth ($9,453). Other nearby schools such as Old Dominion ($9,052) and Christopher Newport ($8,953) are not much cheaper.
The non-profit real estate foundation associated with the college has proposed a new townhouse community on Richmond Road. But the project is not meant to boost affordable student housing (a current dorm will be torn down to make room). Instead, the homes will be sold at market rates and the neighborhood will certainly be attractive to a lot of people, including professionals and retirees. That’s not the only recent example of developers choosing to pursue high-end projects over other potential options. In Quarterpath, builders are seeking permission from the city to build what they deem luxury apartments on a site currently zoned for commercial use.
Williamsburg’s leadership points out that there’s not much land left to develop (though prime parcels still exist, some of which are owned by the city, one of which is part of the proposed townhouse project). And there’s no doubt that more people want to live in Williamsburg and that developers are more than willing to help. From their point of view, it makes sense to capitalize on scarcity, demand and high incomes by building luxury housing. If and how the college and city can counteract those forces to provide more affordable housing for students (and residents in general) remains to be seen. Regardless, there will always be competition to live in desirable places.
(Note: Information shared by The William & Mary Real Estate Foundation says that they will host a community meeting on the Richmond Hall redevelopment project at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, at the City Community Building, 401 N. Boundary St., featuring a 10- to 15-minute project overview, a question-and-answer session with the project team and light refreshments.)
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