According to the Encyclopedia of Social Work, by the year 2035, slums may become the primary living environment for the world’s urban dwellers. Boutwell Road is not necessarily urban--yet--but it is in the city limits and the city is helping it along by approving affordable housing and spending $6 million dollars on the infrastructure, money that we will never recapture in ad-valorem.
Under Public Hearings tonight, is the second reading for the projects named The Village II at Lake Osborne--more workforce/affordable housing on 4.71 acres will be built by Affordable Housing Solutions, Inc. This is a project to be built in the Park of Commerce but the only commerce we will see is tax revenue down the road from this residential rental development. The rest is all conjecture and wishful thinking.
Our Code requires that all developments over 60 dwelling units provide 2 parking spaces per dwelling unit plus eight guest parking spaces. For every dwelling unit over 60 units, one additional guest parking space for every 8 dwelling units must be provided. So, what this means according to the back-up is that this planned development consisting of 118 units needs to provide 250 parking spaces. They will only have 170 spaces--80 short.
The city implies that there will be lower income people residing there and that they anticipate that each unit will only have one car and many will be walking to Tri-Rail which is directly down the block. They actually believe that many of those residing in this planned development won't even have cars. This commission continues to attract the poor and justifies their decisions on conjecture.
They already gave a waiver on the size of the property. This commission continues to make decisions based on tax revenue and pretty drawings (shiny objects) of what might be and are not looking at the long-term effects of their actions. It's all about the money.
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