Affordable housing plans divide residents

A plan to build affordable housing in Apple Valley is angering some residents who have already weathered divisive debate over development in the neighborhood.

The city's planning commission will hold a public hearing Wednesday on a proposal from the Dakota County Community Development Agency (CDA) to build below-market-rate rental housing for seniors and working families near Pilot Knob Road.

Dozens of residents have shown up at public meetings in the past two weeks to raise questions and fears about the plans, which outline a 60-unit senior apartment building in Cobblestone Lake and 45 townhouses just outside the neighborhood. Most concern centers on the workforce housing, with some people worried the townhouses will bring more crime to the area.

Some residents are upset by the plans.

They are upset because they see the plans as yet another departure from the original vision for Cobblestone Lake, a planned community they say was sold to them as a "city in the suburbs," with close-set homes and tree-lined boulevards, said resident Jennifer Kohorst. "They're frustrated with the direction the neighborhood has gone, because it wasn't what they were promised when they got in on it."

Residents objected to a SuperTarget that opened this spring at the west end of Cobblestone Lake, arguing that the store was a far cry from the small businesses and boutiques that Tradition Development initially envisioned at the site.

The housing market slump has led to some changes, but Edina-based Tradition is proud of progress in the neighborhood, said project manager Jacob Fick. Tradition had always planned for senior housing in the area, he said.

Tradition approached the CDA last winter about building on its property near Cobblestone Lake, shortly after the Apple Valley City Council nixed a CDA plan to build similar housing in a different neighborhood. That proposal met with the same kinds of objections now raised by Cobblestone Lake residents, which are common when the CDA presents affordable-housing plans to a community, Ulfers said.

But after the housing is actually built, he said, the agency gets few complaints.

The CDA plans to buy about 7.5 acres from Tradition for the two developments, but only if the city approves both of them, Ulfers said. The CDA aims to start construction on the senior building in 2009 and the townhouses in 2010.

The townhomes would not house the county's poorest people, he said, but rather working residents with household incomes that would likely average around $33,000. Rent would range from $600 to $670 for two- and three-bedroom apartments.

The CDA does criminal background checks on prospective residents, and it denies bout 40 percent of applicants for not meeting screening criteria, Ulfers said.

Based on data from two similar CDA townhouse developments in Apple Valley, police don't expect the proposed housing to result in an uptick in crime, said Capt. Michael Marben. "We don't have any statistics that would indicate a negative impact on the neighborhood," he said.

And some neighbors said they support the proposal, including Mike Radant, who lives near the proposed developments, but outside Cobblestone Lake.

"I think they're both needed in the area," he said.