Housing needs in Williston took another serious hit this week as the Williston City Commission was informed that a developer who intended to put units in the Cimarron Heights trailer court pulled the plug on the project.

During its regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening, the commission also rejected the terms a developer requested for a loan on apartments he's planning to build in Williston.

The late pull-out of the proposed development of Cimarron Heights is by Paul Clift and Mike Hoffman of Breckinridge, Colo.

"The developer for Cimarron Heights has informed us that due to a financing issue, the deal has fallen apart," said Mayor Ward Koeser.

Clift and Hoffman had received approval of their bid for developing the trailer court into a single-family mobile home community. Their goal had been to begin developing a portion of the court before the end of the year, with the long-term goal of bringing the park up to capacity at 312 units. At a Sept. 29 special meeting, they reached an agreement on terms, which said they had to close on financing by Oct. 25 and have the first trailers on lots by Dec. 18.

Koeser said it is disappointing to see another possible deal on Cimarron Heights fall through.

He said despite the housing situation being critical in Williston for some time, it seems as though banks are very reluctant to give loans in the tough national economy.

Koeser added there had been some discussion in an ad-hoc meeting about a short-term way to deal with relieving a small amount of pressure on local housing demand.

"We spoke about opening up part of the trailer court for the winter," said Koeser.

Koeser said it's an idea they don't really like because "the city doesn't like to get into the business of operating a trailer court, nor should it."

The plan would be to contract someone to dig up and upgrade utility lines for up to 20 units at the court and allow people to stay there short term over the winter, likely for about six months.

"It's really iffy, but there's a willingness to try. So it depends on the weather and the ability to find someone to do the digging up," said Koeser.

City auditor John Kautzman said there had been some initial conversations with a local trailer court operator, but it wasn't set in stone if there was a desire to move forward and such an agreement would need to be in writing.

"I think we just authorize it to see if it's possible, but if it isn't, it isn't," said Commissioner Brad Bekkedahl.

A motion to authorize looking into the possibility of getting up to 20 units running in the next few weeks passed unanimously, with Commissioner Brent Bogar not in attendance.

The second issue discussed Tuesday was rejected after a conference call and discussion. Discussion involved terms of a loan proposed by George Gaukler of Valley Realty Inc. of Valley City for two 36-plex apartment buildings he's trying to build.

The proposal was for a $300,000 loan at zero percent interest for three years.

Koeser asked Gaukler if he received approval from them and from a bank, would he be be able to get started before the end of the year and have units ready by the end of next summer. Gaukler replied he could.

Bekkedahl questioned the lack of loans being approved, as well as the terms of the loan itself.

He said it is a shame all of this federal bailout money was given to banks nationwide and then few loans are being approved.

"Our taxpayers are going to be wondering about these terms such as zero percent interest if we approve and ask why are we doing this," said Bekkedahl.

A member of the audience, Tanya Vachal of Job Service North Dakota in Williston, questioned the issue of not only housing, but the affordability of it.

"There are people who don't have oil field money, and we have to deal with that," said Vachal.

She added if the cost of housing isn't brought down, it's going to drive people and businesses away.

Koeser said the city faces a unique situation where demand is high, there are extremely high rates on things such as electric work on projects, and banks are reluctant to give out loans.

"The only way people are going to get to the place where we see prices go down is when we have the adequate amount of housing to meet demand. Unfortunately we're not even close to that, and I think the only way we're going to see that happen is when we have enough housing where at some point the older complexes are able to bring prices down," said Koeser.

Economic Development director Tom Rolfstad told commissioners before the vote he thought at this point any housing would be a plus. He recently spoken to officials at Halliburton, who may possibly be hiring up to 120 more workers, further increasing the housing crisis

Rolfstad also asked if it might be appropriate to send a letter to the state's congressional delegation in Washington regarding the city's situation to see if they may be able to assist in any way. The commission gave permission to draft a letter.

After further discussion, the commission voted to reject the Gaukler proposal in its current form. The vote was a tie, with Bekkedahl and Koeser voting in favor and commissioners Howard Klug and James Lawson voting against it.