It takes little more than a short drive around Ardmore to see that things are happening. From industrial employers to restaurants and retail, this town is growing and quickly. With new business and industry, comes new members to our community. As our team is helping local industry expand and recruiting new industry, one of the many issues we must consider is housing. Where will the primary workforce live? Where will the leadership team live?
The last time a comprehensive housing study was performed for Ardmore was 2005. From the findings and recommendations of that study came the development of the Hickory Ridge Addition. If you are not familiar with Hickory Ridge the goal was to provide housing that would be affordable to a dual income household where both earners worked in the local distribution industry.
In June of this year the ADA Board of Trustees approved the commissioning a new housing study. Last week the team from Community Development Strategies of Houston were in Ardmore. Over three and a half days the CDS team and I met with multiple employers, banks, realtors, and developers as well as city and county officials. Anyone we missed in-person last week, we visited with virtually this week.
The next step of the study is an anonymous survey of area residents’ housing needs and wants. The CDS team is currently developing the survey that will be released through employers as well as ADA and Chamber of Commerce social media in the next couple of weeks. If you can complete the survey, please do so. The more participants, the better information we will have for the study.
Once all the information from interviews and survey results are combined, CDS will release their findings along with recommendations for the community between Halloween and Thanksgiving. From there the ADA team will work with local stakeholders and community members to come up with ways to address the findings of the study.
This is an exciting time to be in Ardmore! The findings of the housing study and their implementation will be yet another reason that Ardmore is attractive to current and future residents.