The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs says no project was eligible to receive the $20 million in tax credits it awarded Vista Park Apartments.
District 10 Councilman Marc Whyte said in September that $20 million worth of coveted state tax credits would not leave San Antonio if the City Council rejected plans for a Northeast Side affordable apartment complex.
But he was wrong. Those credits will support an affordable housing project in another Texas city. The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs’ governing board on Thursday voted 5-1 to reject Dallas-based Rise Residential’s appeal of the agency’s decision to deny its application to use the credits to build a $22.8 million, 88-unit affordable complex for seniors on San Antonio’s Northwest Side. Whyte and District 6 Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda’s appearance before the board in Austin couldn’t make up for the fact that Rise Residential’s Culebra Apartments proposal did not meet the agency’s financial feasibility requirements. The credits will not remain in San Antonio, Cody Campbell, the agency’s director of multifamily programs, told the board. “It’s an embarrassment,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a statement about the missed opportunity. Nirenberg had warned about possibly losing the tax credits ahead of the council’s Sept. 19 vote on whether to approve zoning and planning changes required for Miami-based developer Atlantic Pacific Cos. and local firm OCI Development’s proposed $25.7 million, 85-unit complex along Nacogdoches Road in Whyte’s council district. Whyte opposed the project because of its planned location. The Vista Park Apartments would have been the first affordable housing project in San Antonio to include an on-site pre-K facility. Nirenberg cautioned during the September meeting that there were “zero guarantees” that the credits would be applied to another San Antonio project if they weren’t used for Vista Park. “Mayor, I’m simply going to disagree with your comment,” Whyte responded. “These tax credits are not going to leave San Antonio. They will be here on another project.” He cited email communication with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs that would back up that position. However, a request filed under the Texas Public Information Act for emails between the agency and Whyte and his council office staff did not produce any such emails. If the council failed to approve the zoning changes for Vista Park, “the credits are returned to the region,” Michael Lyttle, the agency’s director of external affairs, wrote to District 10 Chief of Staff Raul Ubides on Sept. 17. “But there is no guarantee that they would stay in the region.” Whyte said in an interview that he understood other eligible projects in San Antonio could receive the credits that the state had awarded to the Vista Park project. “We checked into the Culebra project at that time and were told that everything looked to be in good order and that there was no reason that the Culebra project would not get the credits,” Whyte said. “But to be really clear, I never guaranteed anybody that the credits would be saved — I just said there’s another project that is going to be eligible for it,” he added. How S.A. lost the credits Whyte said the proposed location for Vista Park — roughly 4.5 vacant acres along Nacogdoches Road near the intersection of Spring Farm and Spring Moon streets — was inappropriate. He said he’d received more than 100 calls and emails from neighbors worried about increased traffic and crime, the height of the planned complex and the number of apartments nearby, among other issues. Though the mayor and City Council voted 7-4 to rezone the property, the request needed nine affirmative votes due to a state law requiring a supermajority when at least 20% of property owners within 200 feet of a proposed rezoning protest the change. The law has been on the books in Texas since 1927. Council members Marina Alderete Gavito, Manny Peláez and Cabello Havrda joined Whyte in voting against the change, citing their desire to respect his preference as the area’s representative, as well as their agreement that the location wasn’t suitable. “A few Council members used an archaic rule to kill an affordable housing project, assuring the community they would get state support to build elsewhere,” Nirenberg said in a statement. “In the end, despite their assurances, San Antonio lost out on a needed comprehensive affordable housing project along with millions of dollars in state support which will go to another region.” State agencies award credits to developers of affordable housing projects through an intensely competitive process, and the credits typically subsidize the majority of the cost. The developers then sell the credits to investors, who can reduce their federal tax liability. “The only way we make income-restricted housing possible in this city is when there are other sources of revenue to support the project,” Nirenberg said in September. Whyte said Nirenberg is out of touch with the pressures that council members face to advocate for the needs and desires of their residents. He pointed to a 2016 vote Nirenberg made as a then-District 8 councilman to rezone a 36-acre property to prevent the construction of an apartment complex. Nirenberg failed to garner the necessary votes to change it to a lower-density residential use. “When you’re sitting there as mayor and running around to various ceremonial events and things like that, maybe sometimes you forget about the people in the neighborhoods that we as district council people are elected by and are there to protect and serve and represent on a daily basis,” Whyte said. Whyte said he supported the Culebra Apartments since neighbors welcomed the project, which would have been in Cabello Havrda’s district. She did not return a call requesting comment. Rise Residential’s project was next in line after Vista Park for $2 million worth of credits. The state agency found several deficiencies in Rise Residential’s application and asked the company for additional documents, which it provided, according to the board’s meeting documents. But Rise Residential also submitted new financial information for the $22.8 million complex, including a different loan amount and interest rate, according to state staff. Because staffers didn’t request that information and it wasn’t necessary for addressing the problems they asked about, they couldn’t take it into consideration, and the financing in the original application didn’t meet underwriting standards. Rise Residential did not return an email seeking comment.
City Council OCI Development Side Northwest Side S.A. Ron Nirenberg Whyte Marc Whyte Melissa Cabello Havrda Cody Campbell Michael Lyttle Raul Ubides Manny Peláez Marina Alderete Gavito San Antonio Culebra Apartments Vista Park Apartments Vista Park Dallas Texas Nacogdoches Road District 6 District 10 Austin Atlantic Pacific Cos. Miami District 8 Spring Farm Rise Residential Pre-K Texas Public Information Act Spring Moon
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Teen shot by police in McDonald's parking lot re-arrested for violating probationSAN ANTONIO - Erik Cantu, the man who was shot by a San Antonio officer, has been re-arrested and was in court on Thursday.Related:Teen shot by San Antonio off
Read more »
Future uncertainty looms over Frost Bank Center as Spurs contemplate potential relocationSAN ANTONIO - The future of the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio is up in the air following the announcement of 'Project Marvel,' which may lead the San Antonio
Read more »
Man tased and accused of assaulting San Antonio police officers faces multiple felonies, jail records showA man who was tased and is accused of assaulting multiple San Antonio police officers is in the process of being bonded out of jail.
Read more »
'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives': San Antonio's Ro-Ho Pork & BreadA torta ahogada restaurant on the Northeast Side is the latest San Antonio spot to be featured on Guy Fieri's 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.'
Read more »
Nutcrackers abound during San Antonio’s holiday seasonCatch performances of the holiday classic 'The Nutcracker' by San Antonio Dance, Ballet San Antonio, the San Antonio Philharmonic and more.
Read more »
San Antonio expands VIA Link service to boost downtown transit optionsSAN ANTONIO — A new partnership between VIA, Centro San Antonio, and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is set to make navigating downtown easier and
Read more »