Neighbor-opposed housing project approved
By Joy Anderson
The Forum - 01/23/2002

Over the protests of neighborhood residents, the Moorhead City Council voted to move ahead with a development of townhouses for low-income tenants in north Moorhead.

The council voted to convey city-owned property and grant a conditional use permit to Southhill Group for its planned 34-unit development to be built at 17th Avenue and 10½ Street North.

The development would be built with federal and state aid, along with $278,000 in matching funds from the city, given through loans, tax-increment financing and land conveyance.

Advocates for low-income housing spoke in favor of the project, but residents said it was incompatible with their single-family neighborhood.

“Why don’t they put it on the south side if it’s so perfect for Moorhead?” asked Adrian Schwab, 941 18th Ave. Circle N., noting that those who spoke for the project did not live near it.

Ron Schmidt, 956 18th Ave. Circle N., said he had identified a better site, near the EasTen Shopping Center, but the project would lose federal and state funding it has received if it were moved from its approved location, City Planner Matt Glaesman said.

Councilman John Rowell said any other development on the land would have been commercial – and far less appealing to the neighbors.

“Once this gets built – as I predict it will – everyone is going to ask in a few years what the questions were all about,” he said.

Council members Nancy Otto and Morrie Kelsven, who represent the First Ward where the development would be located, voted against the conditional use permit and the land sale.

In other business, the council voted to allow, with a conditional use permit, the building of parking lots in areas zoned for residential use.

The change was proposed to be a tool for compromise in a stand-off between the Eighth Street McDonald’s, which wants to expand, and residents who oppose the expansion into their neighborhood, saying their property values will decrease.

The change clears the way for McDonald’s to ask the council for a conditional use permit that would allow the demolition of two houses on 9th Street South for a reconfiguration of its parking lot.

Rowell voted against the change.

The council also denied unanimously a request by Eid-Co development to zone for multiple-family residential use 21 acres of land at 12th Avenue South and Main Avenue Southeast.

Several council members said the area, surrounded by industrial development, was unsuitable for housing, particularly because land zoned for industrial use is in demand.

“If you – I’m going to use a harsh word – dump a housing development in his complex you’re going to have a ghetto in the future,” said Councilman Jim Danielson.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Joy Anderson at (701) 241-5556