Monday, November 16, 2009

Taking Sides in Fight over NIMBYism

Link to --> Article in Units Magazine November 2009 on new focus on Fair Housing issues, including St. Bernard Parish, LA and Westchester County, NY cases

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Housing Battle Reveals Post-Katrina Tensions

From: The New York Times
By: Campbell Robertson // October 3, 2009

CHALMETTE, La. — The parish of St. Bernard, a quiet, insular suburb just east of New Orleans, has in the end agreed to allow housing for low-income families.

But even though it is only a few hundred apartment units, it had to be ordered by a federal judge. The parish has fought desperately to prevent such housing and an influx of renters, at one point even approving a law that prohibited homeowners from renting to anyone other than a blood relative, before it was challenged and repealed.

The battle over low-income housing has been one of the most bitter that anyone in the middle-class, mostly white parish can remember, one that has stoked issues the region has been grappling with since Hurricane Katrina: anger at the federal government and long-simmering class and racial tensions.

It also reflects widespread anxiety about just how drastically the area changed after the floodwaters receded.

“I think people have adopted this issue as one that goes far beyond the reality of its impact,” said Craig Taffaro Jr., the parish president. “It tapped into the soul of our recovery.”

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Fight for affordable housing heats up

From: The Leader
By: Susan C. Moller

RUTHERFORD, NJ —The number of affordable housing units to be included in plans for the Highland Cross Redevelopment Area in Rutherford remains in dispute.

Linque-H.C. Partners, LLC, the developer that owns the controversial property east of Route 17, filed a lawsuit Friday, Sept. 18, challenging the 2008 regulations established by the state’s Council on Affordable Housing — the agency charged with insuring that the state’s court-mandated affordable housing quotas are met.

When Rutherford submitted its affordable housing plan to COAH, officials included Highland Cross as a possible location of low-income units, despite historic opposition from residents. By submitting the plan, borough officials were hopeful that Rutherford would be deemed compliant and protected from litigation-induced loss of zoning power.

But, the borough’s efforts, and the COAH regulations on which they were based, have not met with approval from Linque.

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Milbridge upholds building moratorium

From: Bangor Daily News
By: Sharon Kiley Mack // September 29, 2009

MILBRIDGE, Maine — In two separate votes Monday night, more than 165 Milbridge residents upheld a building moratorium that was enacted last June for multiunit housing.

In the first vote, which would have rescinded the entire moratorium, the vote was 65 yes, 100 no.

The second vote, which would have excluded from the moratorium Mano en Mano’s six-family housing unit proposed for Wyman Road, also was defeated but by a much smaller margin. The vote was 72 yes, 82 no.

The votes pave the way for a federal lawsuit filed by Mano en Mano against the town to proceed. A hearing on the suit had been scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2, but a continuance was granted earlier Monday.

If the town had voted to rescind the moratorium, the lawsuit would have been moot.

The court will set a new hearing date later this week.

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