With homelessness and affordable housing being hot-button issues, and local leaders doing what they can to resolve these issues, I’ve presumed some problems that I want to air.
First, with all the new apartment buildings either completed, in production or proposed for downtown (namely in the Uptown Village area and midtown), have the contractors, investors and city planners required that there be two parking spaces per new unit? If not, then new designs should include underground parking for all these new tenants. Not addressing a parking issue is a problem. I live in Uptown Village, and we already have people parking here who work downtown and don’t want to pay for parking.
Second, these new housing complexes were given a tax exempt status: 12 years if you include affordable housing, 8 if you don’t. Are the contractors, builders and investors going to create a trust fund to pay for the social services — road repair, water, sewer, street cleaning, etc. — that are going to be used by all the new residents?
Lastly, with 300-plus new apartments “in the works,” where will you teach the children? I don’t know how many children attend Hough Elementary School, but I would rather not see this turn into one of those, “oh, we can put the children in mobile units out back” situations. That never ends well.
