By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
A new building project is slated to bring between 15 to 20 new houses to Parsons. Developers and brothers Skylar and Shane Humphrey addressed the Parsons City Council October 15th about the project. The brothers were seeking City Council approval on a request to access the 22 acre property above Spruce Street by utilizing a series of old alleyways. “Basically what we are talking about here is a parcel of land we just purchased up here above Spruce Street,” Skylar Humphrey said. “About 22 acres and we need access to it.”
According to Skylar Humphrey there currently exist four disused alleyways on the property. “There’s four existing alleyways into this property,” Skylar Humphrey said.
Shane Humphrey said the parcel of land is landlocked without the alleyway access. “Essentially we’re landlocked and can’t access our property,” Shane Humphrey said. “And if the alley is still alive and not abandoned, we’d like to be able to use that to get into our property.”
Skylar Humphrey said that there is a shortage of housing in Tucker County. “Obviously, Tucker County is on a shortage of housing,” Skylar Humphrey said. “Currently only 19.69% is privately owned in the County of Tucker and if you compare that to the State of West Virginia, 88% of property owned across the State is privately owned. So we’re at quite the deficit there compared to the rest if the 54 counties in our state.”
The project is slated to build between 15 to 20 houses, according to Skylar Humphrey, which will add additional utility customers to the City coffers. “The incentive for you guys is, its within city limits and we’re looking to put 15 to 20 houses up there,” Skylar Humphrey said. “That will be 15 to 20 hookups for utilities.”
Skylar Humphrey said there is a growing trend in Tucker County of young people leaving the county after graduation and he hopes projects such as his can help encourage more to stay. “The demographics I found out are pretty concerning,” Skylar Humphrey said. “There’s a lot of people leaving this county after they graduate high school and I think if we start doing things like this, other people will follow suit and get more people to stay around.”
The City agreed to get the alleyways surveyed. “It sounds like a great project,” Mayor Bruce Kolsun said.
