Legal dispute delays LR housing revamps
Renovations at Madison Heights public housing apartments off 12th Street in Little Rock have been delayed by at least a year over a disagreement about how to interpret a contract signed two decades ago.
Metropolitan Housing Alliance signed a contract with University Heights, a Missouri-based company, in 1998. The contract outlined the terms under which the housing authority could take total control of the land, where University Heights has temporary occupancy rights, according to the contract.
A civil lawsuit was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court in March 2017 and dismissed at the request of the housing authority later that year, but Rodney Forte, the housing agency’s executive director, said legal discussions are ongoing.
The renovation work was initially planned to launch at the beginning of 2018, but hasn’t yet started.
Forte said via email that he hopes to complete the project by the end of 2019. The renovations, which aim to extend the useful life of the properties, won’t require any residents to move off-site, he said.
Anthony Snell, deputy executive director for real estate at the housing authority, presented tentative plans for Madison Heights and Sunset Terrace at the authority’s board of commissioners meeting last week.
Madison Heights and Sunset Terrace are filled with single-family homes and one- or two-bedroom apartments with small lawns, porches and garages.
Madison Heights has 241 units, and Sunset Terrace has 74 units. After renovations, Sunset Terrace will have the same mix of five-bedroom to one-bedroom apartments that it has now.
The proposal includes adding up to 40 single-family dwellings at Madison Heights and 20 “scattered site” units as part of an effort to participate in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Choice Neighborhood program. The program is designed to replace “distressed public and assisted housing with high-quality mixed-income housing,” according to the HUD website.
The federal agency gives out grants, and the program uses combined public and private money.
Two of the houses are set to be built by the Little Rock Housing Department, and the housing authority will sell 18 lots to developers to build low-income housing, Forte said.
The houses are being built in a neighborhood at the intersection of Charles Bussey Avenue and Madison Street, according to architectural plans. The houses will be at most 2,000 square feet and range in building costs from $130,000 to $190,000.
Because of zoning restrictions, the Sunset Terrace apartments couldn’t be expanded out, so the plan is to make the units taller and to add amenities for residents, Snell said.
“It’s going to be a radical change from just looking at this one-level, minimalist architecture to seeing architecture of this nature,” he added.
Extra amenities could include a day care, a self-service grocery store and a community garden in the center of the complex, which is on South Battery Street. The grocery store would be automated. The community center in the neighborhood would also include space for adult and youth education classes, professional training, a community kitchen and a medical clinic, among other things, Forte said.
“These are all plans that are movable,” Forte told commissioners. “Nothing that we’re saying today is final and absolute.”
The commission didn’t take action on either plan, but chairman Leta Anthony asked whether residents had been educated about the projects yet.
Forte responded that they had not, but that residents in the three authority-owned towers scheduled for renovations beginning this year had been invited to several question-and-answer panels.
Commissioners voted to allow the housing authority’s administration to push forward with construction on the three towers — Jesse Powell Tower, Cumberland Tower and Fred W. Parris Tower. In total, hard costs on the three towers come to about $19.4 million, according to a cost estimate sheet provided to commissioners.
Powell Tower has 168 units. Cumberland has 178 units for senior citizens. Parris has 250 apartments, also for senior citizens. The renovations will include new heating-and-cooling systems, kitchen appliances, flooring, counters and roofing. Housing authority officials said they hope the new heating-and-cooling systems will decrease the number of water leaks in the towers.
Construction will start with Cumberland Tower, the largest property, Forte said. Workers will go floor by floor to implement changes in phases so residents won’t be inconvenienced beyond what is necessary. The construction kickoff is scheduled for early September.
“We’ve been chasing this deal for quite a while now,” Forte said.