http://66.225.205.104/JR20100614.mp3
Another controversial low-income housing proposal is on the city council's agenda tonight. Residents of the Ayrsley neighborhood in southwest Charlotte hope to block the new development. The nonprofit Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership has already spent nearly $1 million to buy a piece of land in the Ayrsley neighborhood. It plans is to build 90 apartments it will offer to low-income people with rent ranging from $270 to $660. But Ayrsley resident Lauren Widrick and many of her neighbors say it's the wrong spot. "We are not opposed to subsidized housing," says Widrick. "What we're opposed to is the fact that CMHP has to obtain a waiver from city council to build here because it violates their own policy of building two low-income housing complexes within a half mile of each other." The City Council adopted that policy in 2001 and has only made an exception to the half-mile rule a handful of times. An affordable development called Summerfield Apartments is not far from where the Charlotte Mecklenburg Housing Partnership wants to build its project. Partnership Director Pat Garrett knew it would take a policy waiver to build the new complex. "But we didn't consider it a risky move because it's just such a great location," says Garrett. She says new retail and business growth in the Steele Creek area makes it a top employment center. "The people who work in daycares and teacher assistants and drug stores and all those people - they need a place to live," says Garrett. "(Our plan) gives them an opportunity to live in the area." Ayrsley residents are concerned the new complex would add to an existing glut of townhomes and apartments the neighborhood developer has been unable to sell. They're also upset the developer promised to put a playing field or new retail shops in the spot now slated for affordable housing. Ayrsley residents have hired an attorney to make their case. Lauren Widrick says their most pressing concern is the location waiver pending before the city council. "The reason we don't want to multiple low income housing complexes in our neighborhood is not just for our benefit - people think about home values and safety and those kinds of questions - but we're opposed to low-income apartment clustering all over the city," says Widrick. "I don't care if it's in our neighborhood or in somebody else's neighborhood across town." The Charlotte City Council is currently wrestling with the issue of how much affordable housing is too much for one neighborhood. Tonight council members will take a first look at a revised policy that opens more neighborhoods up to new affordable housing, but keeps the half mile rule intact. Whatever changes they make will not apply to the Ayrsley proposal, which the council expects to decide on tonight.