Area City Council Member Cam Gordon said he's looking for some broader indication of how much support for historic preservation status there is at the Glendale public housing complex in southeast Minneapolis after meeting with some residents who support the idea.

The 20 or so residents attending a meeting at next-door Luxton Park on Thursday night favored the idea of seeking local historic preservation status that would make it harder to raze or significantly alter the complex.

Gordon said a petition or some other gaging by a neutral third party of sentiment among the residents of the 184 units would help him decide whether to request a designation study. The meeting called by the anti-demolition group Defend Glendale offered residents a chance to learn more about the designation process.

"The whole purpose we are discussing this is to make sure our homes are not demolished," Ladan Yusuf, a leader of Defend Glendale, told the group.

The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority has said it lacks the federal aid to do substantial rehab it said the housing complex needs after 64 years, and that residents want. It has been exploring its options for razing the current buildings and rebuilding public housing as part of a mixed-income development on the site. But it has made no firm decision to proceed with any option.

Residents have said they fear displacement from the complex and the area if that course is followed. They say finding housing using Sec. 8 federal rental subsidies can be difficult, especially for larger families.

Gordon told residents that "forced relocation" of residents is off the table in his view. "I won't accept it," he said after the meeting. But he said he might find it acceptable for residents to move to nearby housing, potentialy including hotels, if they have a guaranteed right of return.

Gordon is one of a select group of public officials who have the power under the city's heritage preservation ordinance to request a designation study that would guide city officials in determining whether to grant protected status. That provides a higher measure of protection against exterior alterations. A previous historic review of the site concluded that it meets the threshold criteria for designation, although some state officials think previous renovations altered the complex too much to warrant federal protection.

Because the quasi-independent housing agency is largely federally funded, the city has limited influence on which course is chosen for Glendale, although the housing agency has been working with the city's development agency in the early stages of planning for the complex. However, the granting of historic status is one way the city could influence the outcome.