Neighborhood Opposition to Habit

Neighborhood Opposition to Habitat Development

Next time, Habitat will get to know the neighbors

March 11, 1999, Thursday

Habitat subdivision on hold

BYLINE: STEVE ARNEY

A west-side Bloomington neighborhood is wary of plans to create a Habitat for Humanity subdivision, but attorney Frank Miles, a co-founder of Habitat in the Twin Cities, took a step to answer concerns.

At the city's Planning Commission Wednesday, 11 people, most from Low, Mason, Oak, Springfield and Bissell streets at South Hill, formally objected to creating the 14-home Founders Square subdivision at the end of Mason Street. Almost that many in the audience who did not speak were equally opposed.

Miles won the commission's approval to put the project on hold. Then, he told the residents that Habitat would meet with all of them at a time and place of their convenience. He assured them that a central concern, high crime, would not be an issue if the plan goes forward.

Habitat Executive Director Tom Ginder added that Habitat families, all of whom he knows, "are great people just like you and me."

The Planning Commission did voice approval of a second Habitat neighborhood, the eight-lot Fellowship Place next to Habitat's Wojahn Street development, and it moves on to the City Council.

Crime isn't the only issue raised about Founders Square.

There is one home now in the 3-acre area. The plan would transform a tranquil green area that existing residents would want as a park into a bustling block with traffic and possibly drainage problems, objectors said.

South Oak Street resident Scott Southerland told the commission "it was a mistake not to talk to the people in the neighborhood" before the meeting. Commission members responded that a neighborhood canvass was not a city government obligation but that notices were sent.

Miles took the criticism as being directed at Habitat, and he said Southerland was right. Plans for a neighborhood meeting followed.

Habitat uses volunteer labor to construct homes and then sells to low-income families. According to Miles, the sales may be for $35,000 but the value of the house is usually double that.

The agency has built 50 homes in the Twin Cities in 10 years but needs new land to continue building.

Copyright 1999 The Pantagraph
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL)
April 1, 1999, Thursday
Neighbors Criticize Habitat development; Traffic, density among concerns

BYLINE: RANDY GLEASON

BODY:
The parking lot at the Bloomington police station Wednesday night looked more like Eastland Mall on Christmas Eve, as South Hill residents crammed the building to voice their concerns about a proposed Habitat for Humanity housing project.

In front of more than 50 South Hill residents, Frank Miles, co-founder of Habitat in the Twin Cities, tried to sell the plan for 13 homes and an existing house on three acres of land at the south end of Mason Street.

But most residents didn't buy it, and some displayed Grinch-like behavior, frequently interrupting Miles and making snide remarks as he tried to explain the project and address the neighborhood's concerns.

Some people seemed opposed to the project not so much because it would affect the quality of life in the neighborhood, but because they resented the fact that Habitat families are able to purchase a $70,000-value home for $35,000 with an interest-free loan.

"No one gave us our house for half the cost," said one resident.

"Nothing like this was ever given to me," said another.

But when the discussion got down to the issues, most residents indicated that they were worried about the increased traffic and three to five years of construction noise at what is now a quiet and safe neighborhood.

The Habitat proposal originally went to the Bloomington Planning Commission, but was withdrawn temporarily while the organization addressed neighbors' concerns.

After almost two hours of discussion, Miles agreed to take a closer look at some of the neighbors' recommendations, which included lowering the number of houses from 13 to six, prohibiting parking on the cul-de-sac, investigating whether additional property can be purchased to allow access to Springfield Road and thus diminish traffic, determine if utilities can be placed in the back of homes instead of the front, putting sidewalks on both sides of the street instead of one, and adding garages to the new homes. Currently the plan calls for each home to have space to park two cars, but no garages.

Miles will schedule another meeting with residents in the police department's Osborn Room before April 14, when the Bloomington Planning Commission is expected to take up the matter. However, a specific date for the meeting has not been set.

Christa Lucas, of 1402 S. Mason St., said it was clear that some people opposed the project simply because they didn't like the idea low-income families living in the neighborhood.

"Some of the Habitat for Humanity families are being unfairly judged as being lazy," she said. "Some work very hard but just don't have the means to afford a home."

Still, Lucas admitted she had some concerns. "I bought the house because I wanted to raise a family on a dead-end block without a lot of traffic," she said, adding that she would be more open to the new housing if access to Springfield Road could be added and the number of houses reduced.

"I would love to help those people, but I don't think our neighborhood can hold that many homes," she said. "It would just overload us."

Don Prather, of 602 W. Bissell St., said the project would bring "five years of noise, mud and traffic." But he did note, as some other residents did, that the open space is subject to development, and if the Habitat project doesn't go through, another developer eventually will step in with another plan. And that developer might not be as receptive and willing to listen to neighbors as Habitat has been.

"Some other developer could come in and just railroad a development through," he said.

Copyright 1999 The Pantagraph
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL)
April 27, 1999, Tuesday
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A3

LENGTH: 452 words

HEADLINE: Habitat, South Hill square off again; Nothing settled at council meeting; sides told to resolve differences

BYLINE: STEVE ARNEY

BODY:
The private service agency Habitat For Humanity remains unable to win over the support of a Bloomington neighborhood for construction of about a dozen homes, and has not yet won over the Bloomington City Council over plans for the Founders Square subdivision.

The council voted 7-0 to direct Habitat to meet with residents of the South Hill neighborhood and resolve differences before the city passes Habitat's preliminary plans. It already has held two such meetings in addition to two sessions at the Planning Commission.

The council's interests go beyond the subdivision code and neighborhood tranquillity. It also pledged $105,000 of federal grant money toward a $175,000 purchase of three acres at the south end of Mason Street for the project.

About 70 people packed council chambers over the issue Monday, with roughly half being Habitat supporters and half being South Hill residents opposed to the project.

A frustrated Habitat executive, Tom Ginder, said after the meeting that he doesn't view the neighborhood as a whole as being against the group, but he said the project's future remains in doubt over a legal issue and over continued opposition.

"At this point, we really don't know what to do," Ginder said.

By using volunteer work, Habitat builds houses for people of limited economic means. For Founders Square, it initially proposed to build 12 houses, adding to one already on the property. It lowered that to 11 total houses after there was neighborhood concern over high density. With its current zoning, noted Habitat spokesman Frank Miles, a developer could put 24 homes on the property.

He said the project opponents were raising "problems to be problems," not crucial issues. Miles, an attorney specializing in planning and zoning but also himself a Habitat founder, sounded offended at the proposal that this project hurts South Hill.

"We haven't hurt a single neighbor. We haven't hurt a single neighborhood," he said.

Oak Street resident Ruth Roberts responded that Habitat homes would not be up to the neighborhood's high standards and would lower values. She added that she and her neighbors believe the gradual, prolonged construction of a Habitat neighborhood will translate to dirt, mud, dust and debris for five to eight years.

One opponent, Springfield Road resident Jason Dawson, may have legal leverage. His property has an easement, a formal legal agreement giving him the right to build a storm sewer across the proposed Habitat site. This could affect the way the property is developed.

Habitat has countered by offering to build him the sewer free of charge. But he doesn't want the sewer. He wants Habitat to cancel its plans to build.

Copyright 1999 The Pantagraph
The Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL)
April 30, 1999, Friday Next time, Habitat will get to know the neighbors; Discarded South Hill priject teaches lesson in cooperation

BYLINE: STEVE ARNEY

BODY:
Habitat For Humanity of McLean County might in the future work with the public before its proposals get to the hearings stage at Bloomington City Hall, according to a Habitat leader.

In the wake of heated opposition and demands for plan changes that increased costs, Habitat is withdrawing its plan for the Founder's Square subdivision in Bloomington's South Hill neighborhood and trying to learn from the experience.

Attorney Frank Miles, Habitat's spokesman on the project and also one of the group's founders, said Thursday that Habitat probably can be justifiably criticized for not working on neighborhood support after deciding it wanted to build 13 houses on three acres of land at the south end of South Mason Street.

Miles said, however, that meeting all neighborhood demands in this case would have pushed prices too high. He thought the subdivision would win city approval after a concession of lowering the density from 14 houses to 12 - an existing home plus 11 new homes.

But opponents, numbering 20 to 30 at each of three hearings, made no mention of the concession at the most recent event, Tuesday's council meeting.

The representative of the neighborhood, Alderman John Rhoda, pushed for a delay in the project Tuesday and shared resident concerns. But he also shares Miles' belief that talking to the neighbors sooner would have reduced conflicts. He said people wrote him notes saying just that.

By the first meeting, a Planning Commission hearing in March, neighborhood opposition already had solidified.

Habitat builds low-cost housing with the use of volunteer work. Habitat families work on the houses and are screened through a selection process. It has built 50 houses in Bloomington in 10 years. It has encountered some opposition at times but not with the intensity seen recently, Miles said.

Rhoda saw the parties as being close to an agreement. Miles did not. Wednesday night, Habitat cited the extra costs of meeting demands as a reason to abandon the project.

The opponents didn't like an S-curve built into the subdivision. The city's engineering department ran a computer simulator and concluded the S-curve was not a safety problem. To change the road plan, Habitat would have had to move or demolish a house. There was an unresolved easement issue with a neighbor who didn't want it to be resolved because he didn't want the development. Also, there was a demand by neighbors that Habitat build garages so as to be more like other houses in the area. Garages for the subdivision would have cost the equivalent of a house.

"Habitat families would take another bedroom instead of a garage, would take a family room instead of a garage," Miles said.

Habitat will now be looking for land elsewhere, with no timetable and no place currently in mind, Miles said. It was to receive $105,000 from the city for land acquisition, and the funding remains in the budget.

The future of the South Hill lot in question remains in flux. A private developer who purchases the land could build 24 homes there without any change in zoning.