Council OKs Affordability Unlocked plan despite neighbors’ objections

City Council last week approved a zoning change and neighborhood plan amendment that will allow a developer to build a five-story apartment complex just west of the intersection of South First Street and Eberhart Lane.

The vote was 9-0, with Council Member Alison Alter abstaining and Council Member Ryan Alter absent. Because there were nine affirmative votes, the zoning change and neighborhood plan amendment were approved on all three readings despite the fact that neighbors had a valid petition in opposition to the changes. Nine votes are required to overcome a valid petition on all three readings.

The developer, SVAG Amazon, LLC, plans to build a mixed-use activity center using a city program called Affordability Unlocked.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes moved for approval of the changes after discussing the units’ affordability with the developer’s representative, Leah Bojo, and the plans to make improvements to the site’s drainage.

Bojo explained that while water does flow across the site, there is currently no detention on the site. She said a preliminary analysis had shown that they would need a 50-foot drainage easement on the south side and that the apartment building would be set back from that easement.

Two members of the neighborhood told Council they and their neighbors were opposed to such a tall building in the midst of a mainly single-family neighborhood. Ben Thompson, president of the Armadillo Park Neighborhood Association, said that despite their best efforts to change the developer’s plans, nothing the developer had presented assuaged their concerns. Both he and another neighbor said adding that many residents would be bad for the entire neighborhood. The neighbors are not convinced that any drainage plan the developer came up with would prevent future flooding.

The developer’s promise that 36 units would be rented to families earning 50 percent of the median family income and another 54 units will be rented to those who can show their income is just 60 percent of the MFI was important to Fuentes and other Council members. The remaining 90 units, or half the complex, will be rented at market rate, Bojo said.

Bojo also emphasized that the developer would go beyond city ordinance requirements when it is time for the current tenants to vacate. She said they would give tenants 180 days’ notice to vacate, noting that demolition is not expected until 2025. Any tenant who wishes to break their lease would be able to do so without penalty, once a demolition permit is filed. In addition, Bojo said the last three months of rent would be waived for those tenants who are still there.

Council Member Chito Vela was very enthusiastic about the zoning change. He credited the applicant and Fuentes for the tenant protections and he was especially happy that half of the units would be affordable.

Fuentes told her colleagues, “It is very important to me that they exceed the rules in tenant relocation ordinance.” In talking to area residents, she said, “the overarching concern we heard” was the need to improve existing traffic conditions and drainage. She said she expects the city to be resurfacing the road in the near future and adding new pedestrian crossings.

Fuentes thanked the developer for doing the flood study because, “Right now, the community is suffering from localized flooding.”

Former Council Member Jackie Goodman and her sister, Janis Morgan, signed up to speak in opposition to the zoning change. However, neither was at the meeting and Thompson said Goodman was sick. Mayor Kirk Watson said he had received a long email from the two.

Council approved exactly what staff had recommended: GR-MU-V-CO-NP, or community commercial, mixed use, vertical mixed-use building, conditional overlay neighborhood plan via combining district zoning. Bojo noted that the developer had agreed to the usual prohibited uses, including automotive sales, rental and washing, bail bond services, pawn shop services and hotel/motel, among others.

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