Third Attempt to Gain City Support for Low Income Housing in Southland Happens Tuesday

A third attempt to obtain the blessing of the City of San Angelo, this time via a city council resolution stating the city’s desire to see the building of the development of the Outlook on Valleyview, a low-income housing project in Southland, is on the agenda Tuesday. The controversial project is opposed by hundreds of its neighbors in Southland who filled council chambers Thursday (occupancy 175), and more watched the proceedings via closed-circuit video in the overflow room at the convention center, as citizens asked questions of the developer and lectured City Councilman Rodney Fleming against the project.

One person rose in support of the project, Craig Meyers of the West Texas Organizing Strategy (view video). He said he lived on S. Washington, not in the Southland area.

Citizens in Southland were alerted to the proposal for The Outlook on Valleyview when council approved waiving of the project’s permit fees, about $14,500 in value, two council meetings ago. The fee waiver required two readings. For the second reading, citizens arrived in force to oppose the measure at the most previous council meeting.

Council decided to table the fee waiver decision to allow time for a town hall meeting with the developer, which occurred Thursday.

Since the opposition emerged, LDG Development, the project management corporation for the apartments, redrew its request to waive the fees.

Tuesday (Feb. 17), the council will consider an additional resolution that reads that the city is in support of the project. These projects are awarded funding through a complex point system that includes monetary and non-monetary city government support. Each project is awarded points by amount of city support. LDG is asking council for a general resolution of support in order to make the Valleyview apartment project more competitive.

Money used to finance the project in part originates from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and doled out statewide by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA). In competition for the government’s financial support with Midland and Odessa, the project will be awarded more points in the complex scoring system if the City of San Angelo provides its blessing in Tuesday’s resolution.

SMD1 City Councilman Rodney Fleming, in whose area of jurisdiction this project will be built, is in support of the project. When Southland residents were alerted to the plan, many constituents called Fleming to voice their opposition before the Feb. 3 council meeting. Fleming said the phone calls were disheartening. “The phone calls I got yesterday (Feb. 2) were downright racist,” he said (see video). Fleming said then that he felt the project was good for the city and he supported it to help less fortunate people.

But at Thursday’s (Feb. 12) town hall meeting on the project, Fleming said his primary motivation was to protect the property rights of Southland Hills, Inc., the seller of the property already zoned for multi-family construction. Brokers Scott Allison and Lance Lacy were mentioned as the sellers of the property at the Feb. 12 meeting.

After the town hall meeting, and after hearing his constituents’ near universal opposition to the project, Fleming said he still supports it and will vote in favor of the resolution. Fleming said that he didn’t think the resolution would pass, however.

In summary, the project needs city support to be competitive for state funding. The developer pulled an earlier request for the city’s showing support by waiving permit fees. Tuesday’s resolution is a second instrument, a resolution, that can show city support of the project.

With as much acrimony about the construction of low-income apartments in Southland, the agenda item for Tuesday’s decision reads that the project’s vision is to “foster a sense of community and ensure safer neighborhoods” (see page 135 of the agenda packet in *pdf).

The irony.