Residents of the Milford Hills and Meadowbrook neighborhoods had good arguments on their side as they made their case against the proposal for a 104-unit apartment development on Statesville Boulevard.
The project would bring much more traffic to residential streets and would have a significant impact on nearby schools. It would almost certainly alter the character of the adjacent neighborhood far more than a development of single-family homes or a lower-density housing complex. And perhaps most powerfully, this proposal was far different from what residents envisioned when the parcel’s zoning designation was changed several years ago to allow a medical park or single-family residential development.
When faced with a difficult decision, the Salisbury Planning Board ultimately came down where it should have. It voted against the development proposal ó or, the residents might well say, it voted to preserve the livability and integrity of existing neighborhoods. Obviously, that’s a laudable goal and a core principle for any community. However, as this case illustrates, the desire to do what’s best for one neighborhood can run head-on into another, equally laudable goal ó that of providing affordable housing for another segment of the population.
As the developers for Crosland Properties pointed out, the proposed tax-credit apartments would have provided safe, modern housing for a lot of people most of us would welcome as neighbors ó entry-level teachers, firefighters, police officers. And developers chose that particular spot for the same reason that a lot of Milford Hills and Meadowbrook homeowners settled there. It’s an attractive neighborhood, where homeowners take pride in their property, support their schools and enjoy quiet sidestreets while still having city amenities just a few blocks away. Just the sort of neighborhood, in other words, where Salisbury’s longterm vision plan affirms that the city should provide housing for a variety of incomes.
According to information from the developer, the below-market rent on these apartments would have ranged from slightly below $400 to about $800 a month, and prospective residents would go through checks to verify their employment and ability to afford the cost. A year or so ago, those prospective tenants might have been described as young people embarking on their first jobs, sometimes with toddlers in tow. They might live there a few years before moving on to their own homes in neighborhoods like Milford Hills.
These days, however, the economic upheaval has changed the perception of who might need a break on rent. With unemployment hovering around double-digits and 60,000 foreclosures in North Carolina last year, a lot of former homeowners are desperately trying to keep a roof over their heads and food in the pantry. While this may have not been a good fit for this particular neighborhood, many of our citizens need more affordable housing, and that need will likely increase as the community grows. The site may have been wrong, but the concept is right.