Low-income housing development approved in Wadsworth

WADSWORTH — A new 45-unit apartment complex for low-income renters from the Medina Metropolitan Housing Authority will move forward as planned. The City Planning Commission granted unanimous approval for the project in October after public talks between officials and residents that sometimes grew contentious. Santee Landing will be constructed at 451 Seville Road and will be MMHA's fourth development in Wadsworth after Mesna Apartments, Wadsworth Tower and Wadsworth Villas. Plans call for Santee Landing to be built on 7 acres of land and for the project to break ground in the spring. Construction will carry a $10.075 million price tag with most of that expected to be financed. Other funding sources include the Ohio Housing Development Assistance Program and federal low-income housing tax credits. At a public hearing Sept. 9 held by the Planning Commission, visitors expressed concerns regarding a possible dip in property values, upticks in crime and a sudden influx of enrollment in local schools. Those sentiments carried over into public comments in ensuing City Council meetings. Later that month, a final vote on the project was pushed into October after further comments from residents touched on prospective traffic on Seville Road being too much for the area to handle should Santee Landing be constructed. Officials said recent studies have pointed to a different conclusion. According to City Planning and Zoning Director Jeff Kaiser, the new housing development would result in 16 additional daily trips from 7-9 a.m. and 21 additional trips from 4-6 p.m., which would not necessitate any road improvement or expansion projects. He added that 2018 Ohio Department of Transportation traffic counts in the area documented 2,425 average daily trips on Seville Road east of the State Street intersection and 4,026 average daily trips near the state Route 57 intersection. Combining those counts falls below the 10,000-trip daily workload recommended for Seville Road's "collector street" classification. Kaiser, who recommended approval of Santee Landing in September, has also pointed out that the project falls in line with all city zoning requirements and that such facilities are protected by the Fair Housing Act. Planning Commission Chairman James Cummings moved to wait on a decision because two commission members, Robert Patrick and Dan Sondles, were not present to hear latest project plans before a scheduled vote. Final project plans include construction of a playground as well as the absence of sidewalks, which were originally set to be put in at the same time as the building. Site grounds will still be prepared for a future sidewalk installation. Regarding crime and safety concerns, talks with officials in Medina about police calls to their MMHA housing sites pointed to 20 such occurrences since January but that only one of those involved criminal activity, alleged fraud. The MMHA resident involved was a victim in that instance, not the perpetrator. Kaiser said emergency calls involving possible criminal activity at Wadsworth's existing MMHA housing sites also have been infrequent with market rate housing sites consistently garnering a higher number of police visits. Looking at housing built using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits program, as Santee Landing would be, data from 129 U.S. counties found that neighborhoods with a median income of less than $26,000 saw a 6.5 percent increase in property values within 0.1 miles of the development. However, in neighborhoods with median incomes above $54,000, it data showed that property values decreased by roughly 2.5 percent within the same distance of the housing site. According to the most recent U.S. Census data estimates, which stretches from 2013-2017, Wadsworth has a median household income of $65,917, a per capita income of $31,941, and a 7.1 percent poverty rate. Regardless of median income, the study did not cite any increases in crime due to the installation of low-income subsidized housing. After a public talk on the matter in September, Kaiser said he wants the City to hold meetings for residents and officials in the near-future that cover local government's role in approval of projects such as Santee Landing, which is often determined by overarching state and federal regulations. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.