Hill Plans Proceed; License Fees May Rise

Key pieces of the city’s Hill to Downtown project are underway, and a dilapidated housing complex is closer to being empty and ready for redevelopment. Meanwhile, the city might start charging more to inspect landlords’ apartment buildings.

Livable City Initiative (LCI) Director Serena Neal-Sanjurjo offered that update during a marathon second round of departmental hearings at City Hall Wednesday night over the Harp administration’s overall proposed $554.5 million operating budget for the coming fiscal year.

Neal-Sanjurjo presented a general fund budget for fiscal 2017 – 2018 of $806,395, which is slightly smaller than the current year’s budget $810,227. LCI’s total budget including capital and special funds is $14.5 million. LCI is City Hall’s anti-blight and neighborhood development agency.

Hill Alder David Reyes asked during the six-hour hearing for the update on Hill to Downtown, the name for a broad plan to remake the area between the train station and the Yale medical district.

A June 1 groundbreaking is slated for the first phase of the development by Randy Salvatore to remake 11.6 acres in the Hill neighborhood, Neal-Sanjurjo said. The project, which is expected to have three phases, calls for building up to 140 apartments, 7,000 square feet of stores, 120,000 square feet of research space and 50,000 square feet of offices between Congress Avenue and Church Street South.

Neal-Sanjurjo said that the demolition of the Prince School Annex will follow that groundbreaking, and then work on the renovation of the Welch Annex School into 40 apartments will follow.

She also told alders that the number of families left at at the 301-unit Church Street South housing complex is down to 36.

The families had initially been expected to be all moved to their new homes by Thanksgiving and then Christmas last year, but that plan has been slowed by the process of obtaining vouchers for families and finding homes that can accommodate large families. Years of neglected structural decay led to an emergency plan to clear out the complex and then tear it down, to be reconstructed as a larger mixed-income, mixed-use development. (LCI’s Rafael Ramos is pictured in the video at the top of the story inspecting a peeling ceiling at the complex)

“The projection is to have all the families out by the end of this month,” she said. ​“We’ve run into a little snag around finding affordable housing units so we’re still giving ourselves another 30 days to get the relocation complete.”

New Licensing Fees Ahead?

LCI is looking to increase what it charges for residential licensing and inspection of properties, raising the cost from $135 for to $200. Westville Alder and Finance Committee Vice Chairman Adam Marchand asked about the rationale for the change.

In the proposed budget, rental properties with more than two units also would see an increase from $35 to $50 for every additional unit up 19. Those properties with 20 units or more will continue to pay a flat fee of $1,000.

Neal-Sanjurjo told alders that the increase in the fee would allow LCI to generate some revenue and step up its inspection and enforcement efforts by possibly hiring one more person to help with the more than 30,000 rental units now in the city.

“We can’t touch them all as we are,” she said. ​“Over 7,000 inspections have taken place over the past year, but we can’t catch them all.”

Annex Alder Alphonse Paolillo Jr. wasn’t ready to simply take LCI’s word for why the increase is needed. He said the administration had never briefed alders about the need before, and he’d like to see comparison for previous years.

“This is the first time we’re hearing about this,” he said. ​“It’s helpful to have the perspective and that’s why we ask for the information.”