Community raises concerns at public meeting
ALDINE – LDG Development, a national apartment builder of low rent housing, has announced their plans to build 288 units on a site in Aldine at the corner of the Eastex Freeway and Hamill Road. The property is currently owned by the Greater Pure Light church, who have decided to sell the land and not to build a new building there.
A representative from LDG Development, Dru Childre, has been meeting with local entities last week to advise them of the project, and arrange for schools and utilities to accommodate the project.
At a public meeting held last Thursday at the High Meadows library, Childre showed slides of the designs and explained the amenities and the plan for managing the apartments. Also present at the meeting were representatives of the Harris County Housing Authority, including their CEO Horace Allison.
About 25 local citizens attended the meeting, and many of them expressed concerns about the impact that the project will have on the neighborhood.
Questions were raised about how the project would be managed, to avoid crime such as characterizes the Haverstock Hills apartments, and poor maintenance as can be seen at the Pine Village townhouses. Both of these projects, and several similar ones, are located close to the site.
Marina Suggs, a former resident of Pine Village, said she chose to move away due to the problems at the project that were not corrected and getting worse. Shirley Reed recounted a similar project, Fairgreen, proposed for a site on JFK a few years ago, which was stopped when the community objected to more subsidized rent apartments. State Representative Armando Walle told the Northeast News that the Legislature enacted a law which allows a local representative to object to a project in his district, and effectively cancel it.
In this case LDG Development has gone to great lengths to answer these concerns, and provide an attractive, well managed and safe project for the community.
