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WCRP goes door-to-door to talk low-income development, gets accused of offering bribes
A proposed development at Front and Norris for low-income women and children is being modified to address neighborhood concerns.
WCRP goes door-to-door to talk low-income development, gets accused of offering bribes
A couple people have tipped off CP to the "scandal" that's been circulating online message boards since yesterday: "Affordable housing developer Women's Community Revitalization Project is trying to bribe its way to a zoning approval by offering nearby residents off-street parking spots!"
Intrigue! If you can believe it. The development in question is WCRP's proposal to put very low-income housing for women and children in at Front and Norris. Here's the gripe, from the forum Fishtown.us.
Nora Lichtash, executive director of the WCRP, said she was surprised to hear about the alleged bribe. "We've been door-knocking in the neighborhood for a fairly long time. It's usually easier to talk with people one on one than at a meeting," she explains. They do this before every project, to find out what neighbors' concerns are and how they can be addressed. They asked neighbors their concerns, she said, and they mentioned parking. So WCRP suggested that creating off-street parking in a Norris Square Civic Association-owned lot might be one possible solution. She says WCRP isn't offering bribes, just trying to find a way to address residents' issues.
So far, she says, "We have more than 100 signatures of people within a quarter mile who support our development, and many people are also against it."
In any case, the community zoning meeting already took place — and already did not go well. However, WCRP has since been working with the City Planning Commission to modify the development, scaling it back from 28 to 25 homes and reconfiguring some of the access points. A Zoning Board of Adjustments hearing hasn't be scheduled yet.
Lichtash is optimistic the development could reduce blight and help improve the area as a whole. "In every neighborhood we've ever developed in, property values have increased," Lichtash insists. And the historic bank building they'll be razing is "really falling down. There's trees growing through it. I'm sad because I've always loved the building, it's really in bad shape."
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