Posted on Fri, Mar. 19, 2004

Riverview debate continues

Housing officials, council discuss apartment change

BY ERIN SIMPSON
Staff Writer

Revitalizing Phenix City's riverfront will take teamwork.

That's why two representatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and Phenix City's Housing Authority met with the City Council and representatives from the East Alabama Riverfront Development on Thursday to talk about plans for Riverview Apartments, which many see as the main obstacle to the revitalization of the city's riverfront.

"I have been troubled in the last few months about the riverfront and the riverwalk," said Ed Sprayberry, director of public housing in Alabama.

He said Chuck Roberts, director of the Phenix City Housing Authority, and the authority have been pictured "in a wrongful light, that they are trying to obstruct the progress of Phenix City, that they are standing in the way. That is completely incorrect."

The Boulevard Group of Atlanta, a consultant hired by the riverfront group, presented a plan that would transform Riverview Apartments into mixed-income housing and launch the renovation of the entire riverfront in expectation of whitewater rafting, which Columbus plans to bring to the Chattahoochee River within two years.

In the plan, the current Riverview would be demolished and new buildings would be built in its place to hold public housing families -- at the same cost they pay now -- as well as market-rate apartments. Boulevard is working on the same kind of plan with Peabody Apartments in Columbus.

Goal: Win/win

Sprayberry and Cindy Yarbrough, a HUD field office director, met with the Housing Authority on Wednesday. "We discussed in detail the concept of what is going on. None of the commissioners or myself oppose what's going on," Sprayberry said.

"We are very much in favor of the concept and would like to see a win/win situation," he said. "The Housing Authority's primary responsibility is to the public housing residents of Phenix City, Ala. We have to make sure the residents are not harmed in any way in this proposal."

Currently, eight Riverview complexes are undergoing renovation to enlarge the units and add central heating and air, and washer and dryer hookups. Eight more are planned for renovation, for a total of $4.6 million. The construction is going on while the groups try to work out a plan for the revitalization.

Phenix City Mayor Sonny Coulter recently sent letters to the Housing Authority members asking them to stop the rehabilitation of the more-than-50-year-old Riverview Apartments.

The letter also asked the authority to take the money and put it toward the revitalization plan. All of the $4.6 million to rehabilitate the apartments is under contract, and some of it has been spent, Roberts said.

The Housing Authority's attorney, Jim Ivins, said the contract is not a big problem. "There is no penalty to stop construction," he said. "The Housing Authority just has to pay them for the work done."

Sprayberry said one problem is deadlines to spend HUD money. The money must be obligated within two years and spent in four years. He said if the Housing Authority does not fulfill these obligations, the money will be returned to HUD.

"The Housing Authority will have to be extremely careful for fear of losing their funding," he said.

Sprayberry said the groups need to work more with the authority before expecting them to stop construction.

"I would like to see the development organization work more closely with the Housing Authority and make a proposal to the Housing Authority and say, 'These are some of the things that we can do. These are some stakeholders that have money and are willing to make investments,' " Sprayberry said. "I have not seen any such stakeholders."

Money matters

Funding is a major issue. HUD has funded many similar revitalizations with HOPE VI money, but Yarbrough said those funds are not in HUD's 2005 budget.

"There could be funding in future years, but who knows?" Yarbrough asked. "It's very competitive. What will not be funded in HOPE VI is a community that does not work together."

Working together has been a key of the new push for the city development. The city government is working with the riverfront development group, which is made up of almost 40 local leaders.

"You've got to embrace it. The Housing Authority has got to embrace it. The city has got to embrace it," Yarbrough said.

At one point when Coulter and Roberts began arguing, Yarbrough said, "I'm not very confident this can happen. The Housing Authority and the community leaders are going to have to work together."

Coulter asked what the authority needed to stop construction. "Could we not stop the project, at least a portion of it?" he asked.

"The board's concern is they've got to have something to go on, some sort of proposal," Ivins said. "What is the investment group saying they are going to invest? Who's going to come up with the money for our residents to move somewhere else? The Housing Authority has got to have some assurance."

Sammy Howard, chairman of the riverfront group, said there were many investors ready. "The private sector is ready to go," he said. "If the apartments are there, they are not going to invest. The stigma is there, right or wrong."

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Contact Erin Simpson at (706) 571-8586 or esimpson@ledger-enquirer.com