KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. –Kanawha County Commissioner Natalie Tennant says she excited about the residential site assessment and study that Advantage Valley will be conducting in order to begin tackling the housing crisis.

Natalie Tennant

Advantage Valley, who is an economic development organization that has been trying to eliminate the housing crisis and the statewide childcare crisis, was awarded $12,000 dollars from the commission last Tuesday in order to begin their study on trying to find possible housing development sites.

Tennant said that Terrell Ellis, the CEO and President of Advantage Valley, came to her in March with a plan to hire an engineer from Moonlight Engineering but they needed the money to do so.

She said that the engineer will be performing assessments of infrastructure and how much money it would cost.

“What this study is doing, what this engineer is evaluating, what kind of infrastructure is there, how close is it to utilities, like anybody does, like how much more is that going to cost us, some of the roads that are available,” Tennant said on 580 Live with Dave Allen Monday.

She also says that the engineer will be helping out with permits that would be needed, especially ones from the Department of Environmental Protection.

Tennant said that Ellis will be giving a list to the engineer of potential sites, such as near the job corps area, Cross Lanes, Sissonville, and the eastern part of Kanawha County.

She said once the assessment is done, then the study will kick in where they will be sending the assessment findings to developers in Lexington Richmond, Columbus and even the Eastern parts of Kanawha County.

Tennant says she hopes that this study will get developers to come to this area.

“We want to get developers, and we want more than one developer, because what happens then is competition is a wonderful thing,” she said.

She also said that Generation West Virginia will be having a meeting on May 8 and that she was going to go there and ask the younger generation what kinds of houses they would like to see come to the area.

She acknowledged that some houses may need improvements, but it might be good to have more modern houses.

“Either there going to have to be renovated or if there really preserved but maybe you want some contemporary homes also,” Tennant said.

Image of Advantage Valley discussing results from housing needs survey in 2024