Royal City street project set to begin next week

ROYAL CITY — Repaving of Poplar Street, a Royal City residential street that is also the site of a new housing development, is scheduled for completion by the end of October.

Royal City mayor Kent Anderson said the city had received a grant from the Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) to repave the street before construction began on the Orchard View development. Excavation and utility work are scheduled to start Oct. 5, with project completion by Oct. 22.

Total cost for the road project is $154,514. The TIB grant was $136,512 with the city paying the balance. The project will involve replacing the existing road surface.

Anderson said the Orchard View development is one of a number of residential housing projects under construction in and around Royal City. “We’ve had really a lot of development here lately,” he said.

The Orchard View development will add more than 30 single-family homes, Anderson said, and it is the second development of more than 30 homes built by CAD Homes.

A separate development, Rock Creek, added 52 homes to Royal City’s inventory, Anderson said, and a new complex built by Catholic Charities added 52 apartments.

Anderson said the demand for housing was there – in fact, Royal City had a housing shortage. “Total lack of housing here,” he said. Developers are starting to work on projects to meet the demand.

Anderson said the buyers of the new homes are people who worked in Royal City but lived elsewhere. In other cases the buyers lived in the Royal City area, but in houses with multiple families sharing a space.