22-03-2025
Greensboro needs 30,000 homes in the next five years
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) –The city of Greensboro needs 30,000 homes in the next five years to keep up with the growth.
It's a daunting number, so the Greensboro city manager launched an initiative called the Road To 10,000 to get the city started.
Nathanial 'Trey' Davis launched the concept on Feb. 13 intending to have a work group launched in the first 30 days.
About 36 days later, they are slightly behind. The internal staff work has started, but it will be about another two weeks before the other community members are added to the work group.
To fix the housing crisis, they need the right people.
'A mix of community members, community leaders, folks who work in the industry for development, folks that could contribute and provide input so we make sure that this plan is carried out the right way for our community,' Davis said.
Davis said he has been working with city council members to figure out what people will be the best fit.
'Oftentimes, people may look at just one type of housing. This is about looking at all types of housing,' Davis said.
The city needs affordable housing all the way up to market rate and all types in between. There are three key factors the task force needs to work on: inventory, permitting and zoning.
'So what is the existing land and property available that the city of Greensboro owns … The most important is looking at our permitting process to make sure we have efficiency in our permitting process, making sure that we look at our zoning policies,' Davis said.
If Greensboro is an easy place to do business, the developers will come, and housing will be built.
'Part of the Road to 10,000 is ensuring that as we grow as a community, … we are growing the right way,' Davis said.
But it won't happen overnight.
The city manager has set strict deadlines for each step. The next one is just two weeks away: to identify stakeholders. Then one month from now, the city will host community meetings to share the data the internal staff has found and to listen to people.
'This is exciting for me, so it is easy, and I wake up every day ready to do this work … It is important, so we can show that transparency of what progress we are making with such an aggressive plan,' Davis said.
To keep up with the Road to 10,000, the city manager said a new website will be launched sometime this summer to look at all those deadlines and see if the city makes its mark to complete this ambitious goal.
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