Town’s fire chief weighs in on housing costs

Fewer than 20% of Summerfield Fire District’s firefighters live within Summerfield town limits, Chief Johnson told state Sen. Phil Berger in a recent conversation about affordable housing

by CHRIS BURRITT

SUMMERFIELD – Summerfield Fire

District Chief Chris Johnson said more of the department’s 82 full-time, parttime and volunteer firefighters would like to live in town if they could find more affordable housing.

“I know this is not a popular answer, but there is not a place in this town for a new firefighter, unless their spouse makes a lot more than what they make,” Johnson said in a recent email. “I hear from my employees that there is nowhere in the town they can live. We need more moderate(ly) priced housing for people who serve the community.”

Johnson shared his views in a meeting last month with state Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger. Representing Summerfield in the Senate’s District 26, the Republican lawmaker is weighing whether to support landowner David Couch’s request for the legislature to de-annex his 973 acres in town.

Johnson said he’s not taking sides in the debate over the affordability of housing in Summerfield, a topic that has emerged as Couch seeks to build the town’s first apartments. Even so, Johnson’s views put him at odds with opponents of Couch’s plans for higherdensity housing as part of the development of Villages of Summerfield Farms.