The Andalusia City Council on Tuesday agreed to give Arbor Pines LP a purchase option on 20 acres the city owns on Hwy. 29, north of PowerSouth and almost directly across the highway from the Shaw entrance.

Mayor Earl Johnson said the company is pursuing funding for workforce housing.

“These are the same folks who are building the nice apartments down on Moore Road, near the nursing home,” he said. “This is high quality housing.”

The term “workforce housing” is generally understood to mean affordable housing for households with earned income that is insufficient to secure quality housing in reasonable proximity to the workplace.

“These would be units appropriate for nurses, teachers, city employees, or someone who worked at Shaw,” Johnson said. “This will be a little bit larger than the project on Moore Road. There would be between 60 and 75 units of one, two, and three bedroom apartments.”

The city has owned the land for decades. The purchase option would allow the developer to buy the property for approximately $2,000 per acre.

“It will probably be a year out before this would come to pass,” Johnson said. “But it could be really something nice for our community.”