Comments on: Rezoning Request For Affordable Housing In Ballantyne

By: gb

gb — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:39:05 +0000

I agree with Mike. The 0.23 kids per household is not believable. In my neigborhood, almost all houses have kids — usually 2 or 3.

So we’re talking about potentially 2-300 kids landing in Ballantyne schools….

By: Maria (Blakeney Homeowner)

Maria (Blakeney Homeowner) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:24:07 +0000

This is in response to: Laura – February 1st, 2010 at 11:46 am .

Really? Is this really the time for a bleeding-heart liberal way of thinking? I’m sorry…but we buy houses in the neighborhoods we do BECAUSE of the low crime rate, that our kids can go to good schools and because of the property valuea. I’m all for affordable housing…don’t get me wrong! BUT if I fork out all this money becuase of the location I want the location to continue to rise in value!!! Why don’t you move to uptown and live in their ‘affordable housing’ and see how much you like it before condeming all of us for our ways of thinking!

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 06:30:45 +0000

First how much is this going to cost?????

Ok a quick google brings up some interesting facts about charlotte HUD demographics. This is what we can expect to be moving here.
https://pic.hud.gov/pic/RCRPublic/rcrcity.asp

Median Income 9k
This is about 10% AMI of Ballentyne
Average household size 2.2
Percentage of single parent 46%
Percentage of 1 person in household 46%
Percentage of 2 person in household 21%
Percentage of 3 person in household 16%
Percentage of 4 person in household 10%

So with 86 units there should be about 190 people. If 46%(88 people)are single mothers that is at least 44 kids in 40 units. The distribution for 1 person in a houshold is 46% as well. So 46% of the remaining 46 units is 21 units with 1 person. The remaining 25 units will have 2-4 people in it so you have to figure another 15 kids.
To me that looks around 60 kids with 86 units a far cry from the .2374 per household

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:31:01 +0000

One thing I have not seen at all is how much is this going to cost the taxpayers? They have to fill that lake, the land alone is probably 300-400k. So figure 3 million tax dollars to build this so 86 people can live there. Thats crazy! That and the .25 child per unit is absurd. They need to have to present some kind of documentation on how much this is going to cost and where they got these numbers from. They could easily pull the number of children living per household in affordable housing from social services and I think the cost of this should be made public record.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 23:15:36 +0000

It has been my experience (in several Charlotte apartments) that generally the lower socioeconomic level residents tend to be much more active and visible than the other residents. So with these new units you will likely see a big increase in foot traffic. There will be a regular stream of people walking along (the non-sidewalks on) Johnston Rd and on the median up to Harris Teeter, ABC Store, CVS etc. Also some of these people will need somewhere to “hang out”. It could be on the apartment property or by some storefront or somewhere else. This has just been my experience and the reason I have moved out of previous apartments.

By: bubbajack

bubbajack — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:10:39 +0000

In the real world (you know, the one that taxpayers live in), when revenues are down, one looks to decrease expenses or to find alternate ways in which to increase income….lucky thing our elected officials are not required to deal in reality.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:45:35 +0000

allpoliticsallthetime hit it on the head. The Democrats in city council see a way to secure more minority and poor votes by puttin a group of them up in Ballantyne on the taxpayers dime, Proffitt gets 2 benefits; 1. he’s getting reimbursed because he lost his behind in the original deal with the market collapse, and 2. If a future political run is in his mind then he’s already done a “good deed” to boost his votes from the poor/minority voters who are going to benefit from this deal. Those 2 reasons alone are wrong and enough for people to be outraged but then you add;

- The current deficit in Charlotte which this would only increase
- The amount of people that will lose property value so that a handful can live around here
- The lack of public transportation in the area (none)
- the current problem with overcrowding in schools
- those who do have vehicles in the housing would increase the existing traffic problem
- The high priced retail stores in the area that these people wouldn’t be able to afford
- the cultural divide that would completely separate those in the apartments from those who already lived there, including the children who would see the effects at school

Basically the only 2 groups that would benefit from this would be city council and Stewart Proffitt. Otherwise everybody else involved would be placed in some sort of hardship as a result. Whether it be losing value on their property or having to travel to another side of town to find places you could afford to shop (let’s face it, if you need public assistance you can not and SHOULD NOT be able to afford to shop in Ballantyne). It seems to me as if Charlotte is turning out to be a miniature D.C. when it comes to politics, I just hope the city leaders are smart enough to learn from others mistakes.

By: Really?

Really? — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:55:50 +0000

So many thoughts and so little time:

– if CharMeck keeps making decisions that negatively
impact home values they are just shooting themselves
in the leg- less value means less tax collected
– if this type of housing is not a “problem” then why does
it need to be “spread” around town?
– the local schools are overcrowded already, w/ trailers
and exceptionally large classes, the children from these
assisted homes are not used to such large classes- real
transition issues will ensue- trust me, I am a substitute
for CMS.
– Traffic is horrible! Enough said.
– Why are tax payers being asked to bail out another OVERPAID
WEALTHY INDIVIDUAL ? Have CharMeck politicians forgotten
ALREADY about how pissed off tax payers are at bailing out
the Rich?
– if you think this is not a BailOut, you are mistaken.
Clearly, Stuart for Proffitt is in it for the money.
His company OVERPAID for the property in 2007 and they
can’t sell it now. They NEED the money- not much development
going on right now, and they like getting it from taxpayers
and not banks. You don’t have to pay BACK taxpayers!

– the Election period is NOT that far away.

– Pay attention city council!

Really.

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:13:27 +0000

“There will be an Open House Forum on Monday night to discuss the affordable housing rezoning issue for the Ballantyne area. The meeting will be held at 4:30pm at the government center and the public is invited to attend. This will be the first opportunity for Ballantyne residents to voice their opinions on the debate.”

I like how this meeting is being held at 4:30 PM so people who actually WORK for a living cannot attend!!!!!

By: buubajack

buubajack — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:17:58 +0000

Charlotte Observer front page of Local and State section: Mecklenburg faces budget gap of $15.9 to $62.8 million. Must we ignore all financial reason when making rezoning decisions as well?