In January, Overton McGehee, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, will take his talents to Richmond, where he will serve as executive director of the state Habitat for Humanity organization. The state organization works with the 51 habitat chapters in Virginia as well as working on legislation.
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Come January, Overton McGehee will commute to Richmond from his Fluvanna home instead of to Charlottesville. |
All well and good for McGehee and Habitat for Humanity Virginia. But could McGehee’s departure damage Habitat’s ambitious local projects to redevelop trailer parks in the city and county as mixed-income neighborhoods? McGehee says no.
“I will still be involved,” says McGehee, who has helmed the local chapter for 11 years. Habitat of Greater Charlottesville will contract with the state organization for part of McGehee’s time to help with government relations.
Next year, Habitat will initiate the rezoning of the Sunrise trailer park off Carlton Avenue in Belmont with the intention of turning it into a mixed-income community that includes current residents. “We’re pretty close to submitting,” says McGehee.
Converting Sunrise, with 21 trailers, will be a walk in the park compared to the next big venture that Habitat of Greater Charlottesville will undertake. Last year, it bought the 100-acre (and 371-housing unit) Southwood Mobile Home Park for $7 million. A redeveloped Southwood could be between 600 and 1,000 housing units.
McGehee will remain on Southwood’s advisory committee, which has been touring the country to look at mixed-income housing projects in Oregon, Washington and Colorado, as well as closer to home in Portsmouth, Norfolk and Richmond.
“We’re having a lot of fun studying mixed-income neighborhoods around the country before we plan Southwood,” says McGehee.
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