Fallsnewspress.com - Residents question building apartments on Charles Street

RPC Photo / Steve Wiandt Charles Street resident Angie Joeris asks a question during a public meeting hosted by the city March 3 to discuss a 14-unit apartment building proposed on Charles Street for individuals with disabilities.

by Steve Wiandt

Reporter

Cuyahoga Falls -- Concerns about the planned Cardinal's Peak apartment building on Charles Street, voiced during the city's public meeting March 3 at the Natatorium, included property values and the safety of all residents as well as children attending nearby Roberts Middle School.

The development, planned by Ohio Multi-County Development Corporation on property adjacent to the northern border of Ross Park, "is another apartment complex in Cuyahoga Falls right smack dab in the middle of a residential area again," one woman said, adding the city has lost its residential appeal.

A rental property owner asked why the site of State Road Shopping Center, owned by the city, couldn't be used to build housing for people with disabilities instead of "in somebody's backyard."

"That is against the law, because if I were to take 100 black people and tell them you're going to go and live in this one particular area [it would be illegal]," said panel member Rose Juriga, executive director of Tri-County Center for Independent Living.

The city can't block what is planned, said City Law Director Virgil Arrington. "This isn't our land, it's privately owned property," said Arrington. The owner, Jack Knecht, has the statutory right to build apartments on his property since a court order in 1987, he said.

The safety of those Cardinal's Peak residents who do not drive could be at risk because traffic in the area is "horrendous," said one man. He suggested the city buy the property and expand Ross Park, and the developer find a quieter area. Arrington said that option has not been explored by the city.

Fair housing

"I'm not a threat to society," said a three-year resident of an OMCDC apartment in Lakemore who attended the March 3 meeting. "I don't go trying to do anything to anybody's kids. I just want to live a normal life." He said he is being treated for depression and bipolar disorder. He said if it wasn't for OMCDC, he'd have been "on the street" and it would have been difficult to get his treatments.

He said he mentors children and he helps give direction to adults experiencing problems similar to his own.

Will the neighbors have a guarantee that someone who is schizophrenic and doesn't take his medicine won't live at Cardinal's Peak?, a woman asked.

Arrington said there is no guarantee that a person diagnosed as schizophrenic will not live in that building. If that is a disability, they have a right to live there, he said. "They have a right to buy the house next-door to you," he said.

OMCDC is in constant communication with residents through a resident manager, a case worker and supportive services that will ensure residents see their doctor, said Corliss Newsome, associate director of OMCDC.

"If it wasn't for OMCDC, I'd probably be dead right now," said one man, explaining he is the victim of a brain injury and lives at OMCDC's Summit Terrace on East Waterloo Road in Akron. He noted he stays inside most of the time, watching television, assembling jigsaw puzzles and spending time on his computer.

A middle-aged man asked if Newsome can guarantee that the "same great quality of people sitting here," referring to several OMCDC residents sitting in the front row, are going to move into Cardinal's Peak. Newsome said they were typical examples of residents.

Newsome said under HUD guidelines an addiction to drugs or alcohol does not qualify as a mental illness.

Someone with a substance abuse issue in addition to a mental illness "would not be an appropriate placement in our house," said Joe Scalise, housing coordinator for OMCDC. Scalise said OMCDC and its case manager supports the residents and keeps an ongoing interaction with them so if there is a problem, such as a relapse, it's caught in time.

"We're building a building and doing due diligence to make sure we select the right people to live in that building," Scalise said.

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