Although Foxconn Technology Group’s Mount Pleasant factory could bring thousands of jobs to Racine County, lingering questions over how much workers at the company’s plant will make could hinder housing development in the village.

Jerry Franke, a real estate developer enlisted by Racine County officials to encourage housing development, said the village of Mount Pleasant won’t be able to realize in full the promised benefits of Foxconn’s planned $10 billion factory unless the people working there ultimately decide to take up residence locally. Speaking a briefing on Monday about the project’s progress, Franke said local officials are hopeful the Foxconn deal will bring a market-rate apartment complex to Mount Pleasant, something the village hasn’t seen in 20 years.

But developers are now showing reluctance to pursue projects in the village — which is contending skyrocketing land prices and various regulatory barriers. One reason for the hesitancy: Foxconn has yet to release a detailed report showing how much it will pay the bulk of its workers in Wisconsin, Franke said. Without those numbers, it’s hard for developers to know what kind of housing to build.

“Foxconn needs to give us a breakdown of the wages by jobs. Right now, to say, ‘(The jobs will pay) an average of $53,000,’ that doesn’t do anything,” Franke said. “Until we’ve got that stratification of income and jobs, we’re shooting in the dark.”

Foxconn has said it will pay its thousands of workers an average of $53,875 annually. The company calculated that average by counting employees who are expected to make $400,000 or less; anyone expected to make more was excluded, according to recently released documents from the Department of Administration.

Using those criteria, Foxconn could pay employees $53,875 on average a year and still pay more than 90 percent of them only $30,000 a year.

The lack of specific information could scare off developers, causing the village of Mount Pleasant and nearby places to miss out on side-benefits of the Foxconn project as workers move to Oak Creek, Pleasant Prairie and other cities, Franke said. Franke said market-rate apartments, rather than subdivisions, are likely the village’s best option.

Although changes to local regulations and the use of tax incentives could entice developers to build near the factory, it’s doubtful new houses can be put up in time for the 10,000 construction workers who are expected to build the Foxconn plant.

“Where are all these construction workers going to live?” Franke said.

As Foxconn begins work on its factory, land prices are rising quickly. The village saw a 10 percent increase in residential-property assessments between 2017 and 2018, and was found this spring to have one of the fastest-growing housing markets in the country.

The rising costs mean that the village must have a plan to encourage the construction of apartments in the village, said Dave DeGroot, president of the village of Mount Pleasant.

DeGroot said local officials may also have to reconsider policies meant to ease the way for development. He said they should look at rewriting local zoning laws to allow for more density and changing the Racine Water Utility’s so-called REC fee, a charge developers pay for sewer and water infrastructure.

DeGroot said the Racine REC fee has been known to scare developers away. The bottled-water company Niagara Bottling had once considered building a $56 million manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant but ultimately canceled those plans after learning the fee would cost it $13 million. The company ended up choosing a site in the Kenosha County village of Pleasant Prairie.

“If you’re the CEO, I don’t think you need to create a spreadsheet to figure out that if you go here, it’s $13 million, and if you go here, it’s basically nothing,” DeGroot said. “It’s a no-brainer, you’re going to Kenosha.”