Concordia residents asked to fill out housing survey

A housing study funded by the city of Concordia and CloudCorp is currently underway.
City of Concordia residents and stakeholders are invited and encouraged to provide input on the community's current housing needs by completing the study.
The housing study, being conducted by FIVE RULE Rural Planning, Kearney, Neb., can be completed by visiting HousingConcordia.com. Paper copies of the survey can be picked up at City Hall, the CloudCorp Office, the Cloud County Courthouse, the Concordia Chamber of Commerce Office or the Concordia Senior Center.
The Concordia city commission approved authorizing FIVE RULE to proceed with a housing study and market analysis to address apparent issues related to housing stock in the city during a meeting last November.
The city of Concordia set aside $15,000 for the study and the CloudCorp board of directors committed $10,000.
The purpose of the study is to help the city commission and CloudCorp identify the housing issues that are limiting the city's ability to grow and determine what actions can be taken to assist with addressing the issues. Actions could include local policy changes, the creation of local housing development programs or the acquisition of funding.
The FIVE RULE consultant team began work on the study in January, meeting with Concordia city manager Amy Lange and former CloudCorp executive director Kim Reynolds to review the scope of work and collect preliminary data.
In February, local housing stakeholders and advocates were invited to a study kickoff luncheon to explain the study's purpose and process and to request community involvement.
The consultant team facilitated a series of small group conversations in March geared toward identifying the most pressing housing issues in Concordia.
Now the entire community is being asked to participate in the study by completing the survey. The input received through the survey will help validate the housing concerns identified through other data inputs.
In addition to a community survey, the consultant team will complete street-by-street assessment of all of Concordia's existing housing stock.
Results of the survey and assessment will be presented back to local housing stakeholders and advocates in June with the full study being presented to the city commission and CloudCorp board later this summer.
FIVE RULE Rural Planning, established in 2018 by Bobbi Pettit, is a rapidly expanding planning agency focusing on smaller rural communities in Kansas and Nebraska.