Housing program gives Lake Park a big boost

TIF funds allow taxing entities to divert future property tax revenue increases from a defined area toward economic development projects or public improvement efforts.

The projects in Lake's Park case are a pair of housing developments on Silver Lake: Silver Shores and West Bay Estates.

It was Lake Park banker Gregg Gunderson’s parents, Robert and Jeanine Gunderson, and their children who developed West Bay Estates, along the southwest portion of Silver Lake, beginning in 2003.

“It was originally part of my parents’ farm,” said Gregg Gunderson, who also credited developer Augie Sheppmann, of Spirit Lake, Iowa, and local contractor Bernie Cohrs, for helping create the Lake Park Housing Authority to oversee use of the TIF funds from the two districts in an effort to address the needs of prospective and current homeowners in the Low-to-Moderate Income brackets.

In the four years since the establishment of the Lake Park Housing Authority, some $200,000 has been doled out for downpayment assistance to 22 local residents. An additional $355,000 has gone to 23 other property owners to help fund rehab efforts in their existing homes.

Gunderson said the buyer of a new or existing home has been able to borrow 10 percent of the purchase price, with a maximum loan of $20,000. Twenty percent of the loan is forgiven for each year the homeowner resides on the property. If the owner sells the property in three or four years, he or she would have to pay off 60 or 40 percent of the original loan value.

The 1,100-acre Silver Lake runs an average of 7 to 8 feet deep, with a maximum depth of about 12 feet. Gunderson estimated there may be 100 boats on the lake each summer.

“It’s kind of unique that the state owns just about the entire north side of the lake -- basically from West Bay all the way into town. Trappers Bay State Park is there,” he said.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources stocks Silver Lake, and local anglers reported success throughout the 2016 seasons. While Gunderson admitted he’s, “not much of a fisherman, the fishing last year was unbelievable. Walleyes were really crazy last year, from spring, all the way through the summer.”'

Silver Lake, this community's treasured natural resource, coupled with those housing developments on the lake, and a surge in home-buying and renovation efforts throughout town, have helped boost Lake Park's population to nearly 1,200 people. The 2016 Census estimate puts the total at 1,190 residents, up 167 persons in less than two decades.

In that time, locals have seen the construction of a new high school/middle school, a community center and library, a fitness center, performing arts auditorium, gymnasium, ball fields and a recreational trail, amenities that help address those quality-of-life issues residents seek.

Some funds remain

Gunderson said there are still a couple of transactions pending for the exiting TIF money, with only $73,000 remaining in the coffers. “The good majority of our funding has expired, as the maximum TIF has been reached for both developments. So there aren’t going to be many more dollars coming from the two developments, as both districts reached the maximum amounts before the expiration of time deadline.”

The effort has resulted in a win/win situation for this growing Iowa Great Lakes-area community and its residents.

"Sometimes TIF gets a bad name," Gunderson concluded. "But in this case it couldn’t have better because the 'Low-To-Middle Income' dollars got spent right here where the two TIF districts were created. The dollars didn’t go anywhere else.

“While the developers get some money back, it didn’t cost the city anything because the developers of Silver Shores and West Bay funded their own developments. It didn’t cost the city anything up front.”