ATHENS, Ohio — Citing “confusion and misinformation” about their rezoning application for a proposed affordable housing project, a Columbus developer has withdrawn from the project — but the property remains a potential building site.
Last fall, Spire Development asked the city to rezone an 8-acre property at 0 Pomeroy Road, near the Pomeroy Road/Richland Avenue intersection, so it could build 50 apartments using the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program. The Athens Planning Commission recommended the change to the council on Dec. 23, 2024.
As Athens City Council considered an ordinance authorizing the change, residents of the South side neighborhood near the proposed project voiced significant, ongoing opposition.
On Feb. 14, Spire Development sent the city a letter withdrawing its rezoning application.
The council accepted the letter at its regular meeting Tuesday night, but opted to table a measure that would rezone the property from R-1 (single family) to R-3 (multiple family) residential housing.
All but one of the council members voted to table the question. Jeffrey Risner, 2nd Ward, cast the lone no vote.
The council’s action means the rezoning application, which was on its third and final ordinance reading, could return at a future date — despite substantial opposition from many South side residents.
Petition presented
At Tuesday’s council meeting, a group called the LaMar Heights/Pomeroy Road Task Force presented a petition signed by 377 people (at a planning commission meeting on Wednesday, City Service-Safety Director Andy Stone said 120-130 of signatories did not live within city limits).
Titled “No to Large Apartments on Dangerous Roads,” the petition lays out residents’ objections to the development, including increased traffic near a blind curve and potential increased flooding.
Risner pressed the council to take the vote on rezoning, saying he did not want to see the council “kicking it [the vote] down the road.”
Solveig Spjeldnes, 1st Ward, agreed to table the matter, but offered that she would have voted in favor of the rezoning. She chairs the Affordable Housing Commission, and has said the 50-unit Pomeroy Landing project would have helped alleviate the city’s lack of affordable housing.
Neither Risner nor Spjeldnes is seeking re-election to council this year.
Coventry Lane resident Aaron Leatherwood, a member of the LaMar Heights/Pomeroy Road Task Force, objected to Spjeldnes’ characterization of the group’s response to the project as “hostile” to affordable housing.
“With all due respect to Solveig, I would not characterize our opposition to these issues as hostile — I would characterize this as democracy; it is foundational to the nature of democracy that you have citizen input and citizen dialogue,” Leatherwood said. “I would appreciate it on this issue if we had a more understanding reception to our concerns from council.”
Task force member Jerry Miller, a Canterbury Drive resident, said after the meeting that the group agrees that the city needs more affordable housing, but felt that the 0 Pomeroy Road location was not a good option because of multiple issues.
The petition states that the property has substantial traffic and flooding issues, including a blind curve near the Athens Veterinary Clinic, which the task force alleged has resulted in seven car crashes at the site next to Coventry Lane (The Independent is seeking verification from the Ohio State Highway Patrol for this statistic). It also states the property is “at the confluence of two streams that flood,” with the need to review an Army Corps of Engineering Study so improvements can proceed.
South side residents also have raised concerns about increased traffic congestion, narrow roads and lack of a public bus stop near the project, among others.
During the council meeting, Leatherwood said the 377 petition signatures represented a major effort involving community conversations about what is best for the South side. The petition alleges that, “The city made zero effort to involve citizens proactively between July 24 (when it was first introduced) and when local citizens discovered it on their own in late November 2024.”
The planning commission had considered and supported Spire Development’s rezoning request, most recently on Dec. 24, 2024.
Miller said 15 people went door-to-door to speak with neighbors and other concerned residents. Some residents did not want to sign the petition immediately but wanted more information.
“We have kind of collectively agreed that this is a beginning for us” to unify as a neighborhood, Miller said.
Spire’s letter
Residents also had criticized the project’s development by an out-of-town company using the state’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program to reap profits from local people, without adding to the local economy.
The LIHTC program allows owners/developers of qualifying affordable housing projects to claim tax credits against state taxable liabilities over a 10-year credit period, according to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency website. The tax credits “are then exchanged by investors and syndicators for equity to help construct or preserve affordable rental housing throughout the state.”
The proposed Pomeroy Landing project involved 50 units with one, two, or three bedrooms that would be rented to people earning 30% to 80% of the median area income. Rent for a one-bedroom apartment rent would have ranged from $358 to $815 monthly, Spire Vice President of Development Sean McMickle told the council on Feb. 3.
“Ultimately, the confusion and misinformation spread about the housing tax credit program and the development community, as well as the neighborhood’s general concerns and ambiguity, led to this decision, which was not taken lightly,” Spire stated in its letter withdrawing its zoning request.
The company wants to talk with city leadership “to help clarify several false assumptions about Spire, the proposed project, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program (LIHTC), and the development community in general,” Spire wrote.
The letter criticized comments at the Jan. 13 council meeting made by Capstone Property Management President David Funk. In his presentation to council that night, Funk advocated for a public-private partnership in Athens County to help local developers access the LIHTC program, with proceeds going into an endowment that could be used for more such projects.
This way, Funk said, a local group of stakeholders could form an affordable housing team, thereby employing a local workforce to be used in building affordable housing, instead of seeing out-of-area developers come in with their own workers and with the lucrative developer’s fee profits spent outside Athens.
Without offering specifics, Spire’s letter said that Funk “made many incorrect statements” on Jan. 13.
“While we don’t doubt that Dr. Funk is an intelligent and accomplished academic, the LIHTC program is nuanced from an underwriting, compliance, and overall development standpoint,” the letter stated. “Given that he has never developed a LIHTC project, we wouldn’t expect him to understand it. Nonetheless, he undoubtedly caused much confusion among the city and community about the industry, which impacted this and other LIHTC projects.”
Reached for comment Tuesday, Funk said that he had “complete respect” for Spire Development, describing the company as a highly competent and reputable developer of affordable housing. However, he said, Athens County needs a local development entity to create affordable housing so the economic benefits of LIHTC — such as the developer’s fee and rents — would remain in Athens County.
Funk said that The Woda Group, developer of The Lofts on First — a 51-unit affordable housing project in The Plains — earned more than $3 million in developer’s fees on the $19 million project.
In addition, Funk said, a local development group would have better insight into site selection and would use local builders.
Keri Johnson contributed to this reporting.
Athens City Council’s next regular meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 24, in Athens City Hall, Council Chambers, third floor, 8 E. Washington St. Meetings are also available online. Regular sessions are on the first and third Mondays of the month; committee meetings are on the second and fourth Mondays.
