UPDATE (Tuesday, January 26): A statement from Home Leasing CEO Nelson Leenhouts follows the story.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Hillside Family of Agencies and developer Home Leasing Services want to build an apartment complex at 1337 East Main Street, but some neighborhood groups have joined together to fight it, saying that it’s not what EMMA, which is the East Main, Mustard, and Atlantic Avenue neighborhood, needs.
The development would have 76 apartments: 56 would be one-bedroom units, and 16 of those would be for developmentally disabled adults. The rest would be available for general occupancy, says Kimberly Russell, executive vice president of Home Leasing. The development would expand on a Hillside building that is already on the East Main Street site, but the developmentally disabled people who would live in the complex may or may not receive services from Hillside.
EMMA’s leaders, along with leaders of nearby neighborhood groups including the North Winton Village Neighborhood Association and North East Main Neighbors United say that a lot of work has gone into improving and stabilizing the neighborhood in recent years. What EMMA needs, they say, is owner occupancy and families, not single-unit apartments.
A lot rides on the stability of their area of East Main Street, EMMA’s leaders say, as it’s a gateway to the city, and it’s the trunk that other neighborhoods branch off of, including Beechwood and the Neighborhood of the Arts. If their neighborhood takes a hit, they say, it affects a much broader area.
But Russell says that EMMA is not strong enough yet to attract market-rate investment and that the East Main project represents much-needed economic development in the neighborhood. A healthy neighborhood, she says, has a place for everyone.
And the development would have affordable units, Russell says, which is important, because too many city residents use too much of their income for rent, and that helps keep people in poverty.
The price of the units for the East Main project hasn’t been settled yet, she says.
City Council member Elaine Spaull, who represents the neighborhood, says that it’s up to Hillside and Home Leasing to decide whether they want to move forward with so little community support.
“Certainly we wouldn’t want to proceed with any development that didn’t provide a community benefit,” Russell says.
UPDATE:
“We believe that this $17 million community investment will spur economic development along East Main Street – an important city corridor – and offer quality, affordable mixed income housing to our city’s residents. We are providing to you is current rendering of the proposed community and an updated site plan. Both of these incorporate changes that were suggested at community meetings that were held last fall. We continue to welcome community input and will be scheduling additional public meetings in the near future.”
Nelson Leenhouts, CEO Home Leasing
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2016.
Nimbyism everywhere 🙁
One thing I’d want to know is: will this development be paying taxes to help support the neighborhood after the housing is built? It’s awful nice of development companies to construct “places for everyone” but I’m thinking they get some hefty tax breaks too.
This proposed project is not just “in our backyards” but right on top of our homes! The homes most immediately affected are single-family & owner occupied. Nobody wants to lose their home & have to start over with a mortgage somewhere else! The issue is not people with DD or a few apartments for them, the issue is destroying the whole character of a neighborhood without offering anything in return to the home owners & long time residents. The issues include the whims of corporations vs. the needs of individuals. This is MUCH bigger than “nimby”! A massive apartment complex in the middle of a tiny, quiet, stable neighborhood is not a benefit to the existing neighborhood. There are huge environmental issues that are being ignored as well.
One of the problems is that this massive complex would be not just “in our backyards” but right on top of our homes! Two homes on East Main would be lost; it would be within a few feet of the homes on Breck and East Main. It’s four stories high in the renderings we have seen. The proposed project sweeps around from Main Street and intrudes into the rest of the neighborhood. The homes most immediately affected are single family and owner occupied. No one wants give up their home and try to start again, with a mortgage, somewhere else. The issue is not a few apartments for people with DD, nor the re-proposing of an existing building. This proposed complex would destroy the entire character of a whole neighborhood that is currently a stable, working class community that has put enormous effort into building itself. The rights & needs of home owners and longtime residents should be of equal importance to the desires of developers.
The leaders of these neighborhood groups should be ashamed of themselves for being so quick to dismiss this project. This is an anti-poverty initiative. The people living there will be low-income but less poor because rent, heat, and electricity will be more reasonable. We know There is high demand for true affordable housing. People are waiting 1 and 2 years for Rochester Housing Authority apartments.
Low-income tenants of 1-bedroom apartments such as these are typically extremely careful to follow the rules and not cause trouble. So while the concern is understandable, it’s completely unjustified. We ALL need to take a stand against poverty.
One bedroom apartments in these complexes typically cost $300,000 + each to build. In Rochester houses in decent areas often sell for between $60 – 80 thousand dollars. Why not buy up these houses and spend money to upgrade them. It would help stabilize neighborhoods and provide three bedroom houses at a much lower cost than mega-projects. From the Charitable-Industrial Complex by Peter Buffet in the NY Times of July 26, 2012 – “no charitable intervention (——) can solve any of these issues. It can only kick the problem down the road.”
In Rochester we have been growing the Charitable Industrial Complex for over 50 years with seemingly little success. Is a new approach needed?
This is not the single family owner occupant neighborhood they say it is. In fact, the huge RTS facility is right across the street. Heading to the Lost Burro the other day I couldn’t help thinking what a dump it East Main st, was.
Build big or go home!
It’s MAIN ST folks
17,000,000/76=223,684 per unit. The houses highlighted in the HomeWork feature of City are way less expensive than this. The median sale price for a house in Rochester was $107,500 last year. I live in a $60,000 house and have to help pay for someones $225,000 apartment. Doesn’t make sense. As a taxpayer do I end up paying the difference between market rate and what is actually paid in rent? The Charitable Industrial Complex needs to wake up and realize where their money originates from. It’s time to join the real world.
Why are these projects justified as economic development? I’ve never seen an report from an actual economist demonstrating this. Hillside and Home Properties
are welcome to provide such a report to City. I look forward to reading it.