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City still has unanswered questions about Longhill

Date: 4/8/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- A week after city officials learned the state has requested the release of HUD funds for the controversial Longhill Gardens redevelopment proposal there are still no answers to two questions. Has the state pulled an end run around the city concerning the project? Has the state responded to the request to change the project porposed by Mayor Domenic Sarno?

Sarno told Reminder Publications on Friday he is still waiting for a legal analysis on whether the state's March 18 request to HUD to release federal HOME funds prevents the city from having control over the project, which would redevelop the failed condominiums into low-income housing. He said he thinks it only applies to the release of state HOME funds and not the city s $550,000 federal funds that would help underwrite the project. Therefore, the city still has some control by not having requested its HOME funds.

"I'm still waiting for clarification," he said."If the Secretary [Tina Brooks, the undersecretary of the Department of Housing and Community Development] wants to come out here [to see Longhill and discuss it] that would be great."

The project would be funded in part by $550,000 in city HOME funds, $550,00 in state HOME funds, $250,000 from the state Affordable Housing Trust, $750,000 from the state Housing Stabilization Fund, and $1 million from the MassHousing Priority Development Fund as well as Low Income Housing Tax Credit allocations.

George Pappas of Springfield Forward, the advocacy group that has opposed the plan, filed a formal objection to HUD by the April 2 deadline. Pappas maintained the request to release funds to HUD from the state is for both the state and city HOME funds.

Pappas' claim is backed by a legal ad forwarded to him by HUD that was published on Feb. 23 that reads in part "On or about March 16, 2009 the City of Springfield and the Department of Housing and Community Development will submit requests to the U.S. Department of HUD Boston regional Office for the release of HOME funds."

Because of the joint filing, Pappas asserted the city has lost control of the project.

Sarno had written to Brooks about amending the project to include 40 percent of the units as market rate housing. He said he has not heard back from Brooks.

The state's request of funds "doesn't kill the discussion," Sarno said.

The mayor said that he has investigated suggestions made by Forest Park residents about alternatives to having a low-income housing complex on Longhill Street. He said he wished that when entering office the city had the funds available to buy the property itself to determine what kind of development is built there. He explained that because the city had to rely on a private/public partnership the public funds come with conditions that stipulate what kind of housing could be built.