New homeowners continue moving into Robin Run housing tract

MT. PLEASANT - Since welcoming its first residents in March, the Robin Run housing community located along East Linden Drive has seen a total of seven manufactured homes placed on the property. When completed, the community will have a total of 53 homes.

Sid Davis, owner of Davis Homes, the company building the manufactured homes and developing the property, said the idea to use the land as a housing community started in 2008 when he saw a 'For Sale” sign on the lot.

Davis was in the process of purchasing nearby Crossroads RV Park and was looking at purchasing some property along the highway, which is when he noticed the property. The business owner added city leaders had mentioned affordable housing was an obstacle facing the community, which prompted Davis to consider developing the area.

'We had an answer, not necessarily for everybody, but this just made sense and fit in line with what we and the city wanted to do,” he said.

Davis added the affordable housing would be helpful for various industries in town, whose workers drive sometimes upward of an hour to get to Mt. Pleasant. He believes providing affordable housing will help the town keep growing.

'It's nice to have them stay here, spend their money here, put their kids in school here. We need to make sure there's housing here to get the appropriate amount of employees and citizens the town needs,” Davis said.

Davis reached out to Dan Williams, owner of the property. Williams purchased the land in 2006, hoping to develop it into a strip mall or something similar, but quickly found out, following a study produced by the University of Iowa, the best use of the land would be for housing.

In 2017, Davis and Williams began working to get approval from the City Council to change city ordinances and zoning to make the housing community a reality, a process which took about a year.

Brent Schleisman, city administrator, said the city 'really promotes housing” development in the community.

'Every community needs all types of housing and this was an opportunity that presented itself to hit a certain niche market of people,” Schleisman said of the collaboration between the development and the city.

From there, Davis and Williams began working to make the land suitable for the manufactured homes. In March, Williams was one of the first homeowners to move onto the property. As the development continues to grow, Davis said interest is growing.

'We are showing homes every day. We're going to be getting more homes this way to meet demands,” Davis said.

The manufactured homes generally begin at $85,000. Davis noted the housing community takes care of grass mowing and trash pickup. Additionally, because homeowners lease the land where their homes sit, property taxes will remain low. As a new property, Robin Run will include new streets and utilities as well and has a sheltered mailroom.

'New properties are always attractive to people. We're selling homes that are going into a community so we're here to service the homes long term,” Davis said.