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Jillian Hopson was raised in Eudora and wishes she still lived here. 

But after months of searching, she wasn’t able to find housing. So, she moved into a two-bedroom duplex in Wellsville that was both nicer and cheaper than anything she could find in Eudora. 

Housing prices nationally have skyrocketed in the last decade, and it’s left many young adults feeling boxed out of the communities where they were raised. Hopson said housing doesn’t stay on the market for long in Eudora, and when it does, it’s usually way out of the price range for a young teacher fresh out of school. 

“I really just want to find a place to live,” Hopson said. 

City officials and developers in town are working to bring new housing options to the market quickly, but are faced with challenges like rising costs and community pushback. 

Eudora’s location along K-10 and proximity to the Panasonic plant in De Soto have provided an opportunity for the town to grow, city officials and developers said. The challenge, they said, is balancing new developments, affordable prices and protecting Eudora’s small-town feel.  

‘We don’t want to miss out on anything’

When City Manager Zack Daniel took office last year, he said his primary goal was to encourage residential development. In the months since, a slew of projects are making their way through the city’s development process, including apartments by the elementary school, single-family homes south of K-10 and the mixed-use Nottingham development. 

Daniel said the primary problem is a lack of available stock. 

“We just don’t have a lot of variety available,” he said. “If you’re a family coming in, and you have a specific need, it’s not unlikely that Eudora doesn’t have that specific need, because we just don’t have a lot of availability in terms of housing stock.”

Hopson said after graduating from KU and starting her first year teaching in Wellsville, she wanted to move back home to be close to her parents and aging grandmother. She was open to any type of housing, but found a scarce and highly competitive market in Eudora, with most options pricing out far beyond what she could afford on a new teacher’s salary. 

She said the city needs to continue pursuing new types of housing like duplexes and apartments that are more reasonably priced for younger people.

“Not everybody needs a garage and a lawn and four bedrooms,” she said. “This would be an opportunity to broaden the horizon for younger people, for younger workers, or younger couples, smaller families.”

The main goal for the city is diversity, Daniel said. The city is working to develop all kinds of housing: single-family homes, duplexes, market-rate apartments and affordable apartments. 

“It is very much, to some degree, a strike‑while‑the‑iron‑is‑hot kind of thing,” Daniel said. “We’ve got, obviously, a lot of development interest going on right now. Those conditions don’t last forever. … People want to have those conversations. They might not want to have those conversations in three years, and we don’t want to miss out on anything, but we also don’t want to just open the doors too wide and let it be the wild, wild West.”

‘It’s still a small town’

Some of the developments have come with pushback from community members who worry more housing, specifically apartments, could erode Eudora’s small-town feel. 

“When a city grows, obviously there needs to be development,” said Michel Borchardt, who is developing the new Nottingham Center, which is planned to include apartments, services and restaurants. “How do we work to maintain a level of affordability in a smaller community? That becomes the challenge for the developer.”

Hopson said she thinks community reservations to housing development is because they are worried it will bring in new people with no ties to the city. But Hopson said the current situation also blocks out people like her, who were raised in town.

“What’s so bad about bringing business and liveliness into such a great town?” she said. “It’s still a small town. I think people kind of freak out about it for the wrong reasons.”

Many of the developers working on projects churning through the city planning process are local to Eudora. They said having ties to the community helps them know what type of housing projects to pursue. 

Dustin Baker, managing partner at Alcove Development, which is building houses at the Shadow Ridge and Holladay Woods developments, said the developer’s role centers around supply and demand. Having developers who are local to the area helps them know what the town needs.

“We feel like we need to be entrenched into the community and understand, from the community’s perspective, what they feel like they need and want,” he said.

Borchardt said local developers have a better sense of what the community needs. 

“I think when you’re local, you are partnering with the community and the city, and you are crafting and developing something that the city needs and has a use for,” he said. “A lot of times, an outside developer, they have their own vision, their own model, and they try to force fit a square peg into a round hole, so to speak.”

‘Eudora has a great opportunity’

GW Weld, who is developing the apartments by the elementary school, said Eudora is a popular target destination for young families due to its location on K-10 and great schools. But many young people and families struggle to find housing in their price range. 

The average home price has nearly doubled over the past decade and new building levels remain low. In Lawrence, for example, the rate of new housing development has reached record lows the last few years.  

That means fewer units on the market and higher prices. 

Meagan Cox, a Eudora real estate agent at Platinum Realty, said houses are rarely on the market for long nowadays.

“You might get a week at a time where we have maybe five or six homes available, and, you know, if they’re good and they’re priced well, we might be back in the same situation where they’re under contract in 24 hours, and then we’re wondering, ‘When is the next one going to come?’” she said.

Weld said Eudora has been pursuing more building and development, which he says will serve the city well. Not only does it mean more opportunities for new residents looking for housing, but it also means less tax pressure on current homeowners. 

“I think the city kind of has an approach of, we need all types of housing, and so let’s pursue that with every opportunity that comes available,” he said. “Once Eudora is able to grow from a resident standpoint, that’s when you’ll start to see some more retail development happen in town, and that’s really what the town needs to stabilize the tax base and take a lot of the burden off of the homeowners.”

Daniel said market research suggests higher priced houses (about $600,000, for example) aren’t as desired right now as mid-priced housing (about $325,000, for example). The city has worked with developers to try and target housing that sits closer to that lower price range. 

But with rising construction costs for home builders, it can be hard to keep prices low. If the cost to build is high, the house will naturally sell for more so the developer doesn’t take a loss.

Baker said developers have few levers they can pull to lower housing prices. 

That’s why local developers have asked the city for incentives, he said. Both the Shadow Ridge and Holladay Woods projects were approved for Residential Housing Incentive Districts, which take increases in property tax revenue from the developments and redirect it to fund infrastructure costs. 

“That’s why we’ve requested some financial incentives,” Baker said. “In order to allow us to sell that lot for less than what we would have to sell it for from a development standpoint. To make it financially feasible.”

Mayor Tim Bruce said his goals are to encourage development while keeping costs low. He wants the city to be responsive to developers and what they offer the city. He wants to ensure city codes are updated and ready for developers so the city can tell prospective builders, “These are the rules of the game. If you want to play, we’d love to have you.”

David Hill is the CEO of MidAmerica Bank, a major real estate lender in the area. He said Eudora is uniquely situated to capitalize on growth in the region because of its location on K-10 and a lack of housing development in nearby areas like Lawrence.  

“It’s great to have housing diversity,” he said. “You’re going to hit different sectors of housing, and that’s a good thing.”

Right now, Hill said, not enough projects in Eudora are shovel-ready. 

He said Eudora needs to focus on getting projects to that point in the coming months to ensure they can capitalize on regional growth from things like the Panasonic plant. 

“Eudora has a great opportunity ahead of it because of its location and the fact that Lawrence is so, so dead,” he said. “Their inability is Eudora’s opportunity. The key along the way is not to change the character and charm of a small town like Eudora.”

For Hopson, more available options in Eudora would be welcome. She still would love to move back to Eudora and be close to family. 

“I love Wellsville,” she said, “but I would someday like to end up back here, really close to home.”

Reach reporter Cuyler Dunn at [email protected].