Houses popping up in town of Ellis

By PHYLLIS J. ZORN

Hays Daily News

ELLIS — Ellis might be the place to watch if you're looking to buy a new house.

An ambitious new housing project, Southridge Redevelopment, aims to add more than 169 residences plus green space and perhaps another nine golf holes to the town.

The total project encompasses 152 acres of land, said developer Doug Shaw. Shaw said he expects the building to be going on as long as 20 years.

The first four houses of the first phase of the project, begun in September, are completed. Two are sold. Those houses are located along Monroe.

Walnut Street will be extended to the south and houses built along it. All told, phase one will include construction of about 140 houses, 70 of them along a yet-to-be-built access road to be called Cedar Lane.

Cedar Lane will loop along from Old Highway 40 to Spruce. While the other houses in the project will be single-family residences, the ones along Cedar Lane will town homes and patio homes.

Construction on Cedar Lane is set to begin around May 1.

“We're just looking to start construction as quickly as possible,” Shaw said.

Shaw said his plan is to keep the selling price of the houses in a range working people can afford. The four already completed were marketed at $89,900 to $129,000.

“I've got a pretty good range in there, but the average price will probably be in the low $100s,” Shaw said.

Shaw made use of tax increment financing for the project. With tax increment financing, the city, county and school board have agreed to receive the same amount of taxes they already get for the property until the additional taxes collected by the county pay back the bonds issued for the infrastructure improvements needed for the development.

The second phase of the development will involve the construction of about 50 houses. Set to begin three to four years down the road, phase two will include extensions of Spruce and Maple Streets.

Phase three of the plan calls for the development of green space in the area south of the existing golf course. It's possible nine additional holes will be added to the golf course, Shaw said. The number of houses to be built in phase three is not yet decided, Shaw said.

Construction was begun on 64 single-family and seven multi-family houses throughout Ellis County during 2004. That's slightly up from the 70 new houses begun during 2003.

Three permits were issued for construction of new houses in Victoria, all in the Robben Addition.

In Ellis, four houses were begun in the Southridge Redevelopment project plus one additional house on the same street and five assisted living units that are part of the Ellis Good Samaritan Center.

In Hays, 23 single-family homes and five two-family homes were started during 2004.

The number of single-family homes started in Hays during 2004 is a drop from the previous three years.

In 2003, there were 32 permits issued for single-family homes and 26 permits each in 2002 and 2001.

The new houses in Hays were part of the Tallgrass Addition and the 41st Street Plaza Addition.

Reporter Phyllis Zorn can be reached at (785) 628-1081, ext. 137, or by e-mail at

phylz@dailynews.net.