“A lot of people prefer a new home,” City Manager Norbert Klopsch said. “So when a lot like this becomes available for an altogether new build, it’s attractive to (many) buyers.”
The structure was built above “a critically important section of failing sewer culvert” that needed to be replaced for the project, Oakwood Vice Mayor Steve Byington said.
Oakwood bought the home nearly four years ago and demolished it in preparing for the sewer work, Byington added.
The vast majority of Oakwood was fully developed decades ago and the city is predominantly a residential housing community where new home construction is uncommon.
Six single-family homes were built in Oakwood during 2019-20, all part of Pointe Oakwood near the Dayton border in the suburb’s northern section, Klopsch said.
Aside from Pointe Oakwood, “it’s primarily been infill lots or residential areas where there happens to be a double lot or a vacant lot next to a home,” he said.
“But the options are very limited on that. And so people who are interested in having a newer home, or a brand new home, they have very few options in Oakwood,” Klopsch added.
Before 2019, one home was built on Runnymede Road in 2017, he said.
“There are no neighborhoods in Oakwood where we have either commercial or residential properties that I would say are candidates for tear down and then for rebuilding it differently,” Klopsch said. “For instance, two or three multi-family homes that we’d want to take down and have single-family homes built.”
The Far Hills property is 0.287 acres and has a market value of $74,220, according to Montgomery County land records.
Klopsch said the home was likely more than 65 years old. It had a value of $306,790 from 2020-23, the county recorder’s website states.
If council approves the measure next month, Oakwood will have the land appraised and send out a notice for offers, Klopsch said.
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