Lockport approves housing variances
Project targets Genesee Street
Published: December 23, 2009, 12:30 am
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LOCKPORT—Despite skepticism from besieged, wary residents of the neighborhood, the city Zoning Board of Appeals approved a stack of variances Tuesday for an $8.5 million makeover of the housing in the Genesee Street area.
Lockport Canal Homes is the moniker that Housing Visions, a Syracuse-based not-for-profit organization, has given to its plan to buy up property in the neighborhood and either demolish or rehabilitate it.
Zoning Board Chairman Kevin McCabe said he was skeptical, but was won over by Housing Visions’ nearly 20-year record of success in other cities.
Member Richard Scinta said, “This city’s turning into empty lots, boarded-up buildings, and I’m sick of it. We deserve better than that.”
In all, 33 new apartments in 10 buildings are to be built on sites on Genesee Street and around the corner on Locust Street.
The area south of downtown is packed with many once-grand homes that have long been subdivided into apartments, many owned by absentee landlords.
The neighborhood keeps the Lockport Police Department busy with frequent calls for drug dealing, domestic violence and street rowdiness.
Michael W. LaFlair, Housing Visions’ development project manager, said his agency has succeeded in Syracuse and in several smaller cities in Central New York. This is its first foray into Western New York.
The plan is to apply for state tax credits, which it can sell for cash, to carry out the make-overs and then manage the properties while screening tenants.
LaFlair said the usual purchaser of the tax breaks is Key Bank. The work is to begin in about a year and be finished in 2012.
“I’ve heard this song and dance before,” resident Andrew Rosenberg said. “You don’t understand what kind of riff-raff is down there. You don’t know what it’s like not to be able to go into your own front yard because it’s not safe. When the tax credits run out, what are you going to do, sell it to another slumlord?”
LaFlair said state regulations require Housing Visions to manage the properties for at least 15 years, after which the smaller ones can be sold to tenants who qualify for mortgages. The others Housing Visions must maintain for as long as 50 years. If the operation folds, the state takes over.
Jody Sossong of Elmwood Avenue asked how “undesirables” can be kept out while complying with housing discrimination laws.
LaFlair said, “They still have to pass the credit check, which is legal, the criminal background check, which is legal, and the sex offender check, which is legal.”
He said any police involvement, whether triggered by tenants or visitors, will be met with a “zero tolerance” policy.
“There will be an eviction notice within three days, if not one day,” LaFlair said.
Although this is envisioned as low-income housing, he told Sossong, “I think you’re casting a big net over a lot of people. They’re not all undesirables.”
Several speakers opposed variances to allow the new apartments to have one parking space per unit instead of the two spaces the city normally requires. Also, overnight on-street parking is illegal in Lockport without a city permit.
Asked what would happen to families who have two cars, Housing Visions’ Rochester architect, Michael Braun, answered, “They may have to choose not to live there.”
Alderman-elect Jack L. Smith Jr. said the parking shortage might be a blessing.
“I want the people parking there to be the tenants. I don’t want those overnight guests,” Smith said.
e-mail: tprohaska@buffnews.com
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