Raleigh’s Scatter Site Policy came under fire during a Council committee meeting Friday as Councilors and the public discussed an affordable housing community planned for Southwest Raleigh.<\/p>\n
Despite the controversy, members of the Comprehensive Planning Committee approved funding for the project by a 2 to 0 vote. Councilor Bonner Gaylord was absent from the meeting.<\/p>\n
The issue will go before the full Council for a final vote at a special meeting Tuesday at 10 a.m.<\/p>\n
DHIC, one of Raleigh’s biggest builders of affordable houses and rental properties, intends to build a 48-unit rental apartment at 2904 Tryon Road for families who make less than 60 percent of Raleigh’s average median income.<\/p>\n
DHIC applied for joint venture funding through the City for a $750,000 loan, which was approved by the Budget and Economic Development Committee in late April.<\/p>\n
The request, and the city’s Scatter Site Policy, were sent to the Comprehensive Planning Committee on Tuesday for further review after neighbors spoke out against the project.<\/p>\n
City staff used the Scatter Site Housing Policy as part of the evaluation process for the funding application. The policy ranks areas of the city for affordable housing.<\/p>\n
The Tryon Road site is in a Priority Two area, making it an acceptable place for affordable housing.<\/p>\n
But critics of the project say that because there are already three other publicly funded projects for lower-income residents within a half mile of the prospective site, it violates the policy.<\/p>\n
The policy is used to discourage concentrated areas of low-income housing.<\/p>\n
Andy Petesch an attorney representing the Camden Crossing community, said residents don’t have a problem with DHIC or affordable housing, but this project would concentrate more of this type of housing in this neighborhood.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s the right site,” said Brandon Moore, a resident an Camden Crossing homeowners association member.<\/p>\n
He said the city has a policy that is already on the books and should be enforced.<\/p>\n
“Residents should expect that you have some weight in these decisions,” he said.<\/p>\n
Petesch also questioned why the project got a higher evaluation score than it did a year ago when it was denied by the city. According to the minutes of a May 2012 Budget and Economic Development meeting, the project got a score of 42.<\/p>\n
This year, it was given a score of 60.<\/p>\n
Camden Crossing homeowners association president Henry Taylor said the he was mainly, “concerned that this was denied a year ago and this has popped up again.”<\/p>\n
Aimee Holtsclaw in the Community Development Department said changes in the state-developed evaluation criteria lead to an increased score.<\/p>\n
Last year, she said, points were deducted because \u2014 according to Google Maps \u2014 the site was more than a half a mile from a grocery store. Holtsclaw said the state changed the preferred threshold to one mile.<\/p>\n
DHIC president Gregg Warren added that the state also dropped a penalty for developments with a right-turn-only exit. These changes in the state-established evaluation criteria give it an additional 12 points.<\/p>\n
Attorney Isabel Mattox, who was representing DHIC, said the project was given a low score for its proximity to other affordable housing developments, but that the rest of the criteria made it suitable for funding.<\/p>\n
Mattox also said that if the funding for the DHIC project is not approved, a for-profit developer could come in and build its own development because the property is zoned for everything from residential apartments to a T.V. and radio station or funeral home.<\/p>\n
Neighbors in attendance cited other issues with the project, including an increase in traffic and an existing parking problem.<\/p>\n
Residents said the nearby entrance to the Camden Crossing development is often used as an idling spot for buses and that on-street parking has disappeared as owners have moved out and renters have moved in.<\/p>\n
Councilor and Committee Chair Russ Stephenson said that parking, traffic and buses are a separate issue that will be referred to the Public Works committee.
\nStephenson said Councilors and staff will also continue reviewing the Scatter Site Policy. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of a second City Council committee approved funding for an affordable housing community in Southwest Raleigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24029,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,15,23],"tags":[740,1088,1246],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24029"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}