WEST ADAMS : Residents Protest Reopening of Alley

Some neighbors are complaining that directors of a First African Methodist Episcopal Church housing development are turning a deaf ear to their concerns that reopening an alley as the development’s main access will encroach on the neighborhood’s peace and safety.

Ismael Navies, a 40-year resident of West 27th Street and block club president, said he and others have protested the plan to turn the 14-foot-wide alley between 2nd and Arlington avenues into the main access for FAME Manor, a two-acre, 26-unit affordable-housing development at 3210 W. Adams Blvd.

“It took us years to get that alley closed,” said the 72-year-old Navies, who lives across the street from the construction site. “It was a problem crime-wise. Now they want to not only open it, but use it as a driveway. It’s just not feasible.” The alley, he said, had also been used as a dumping ground, even turning up a body on one occasion.

Peggy Hill, executive director of FAME Housing Corp., said that she and other FAME officials have met several times with Navies to allay fears about safety. The corporation, she said, plans only to move the alley’s gates to allow the project’s residents access to an underground parking lot, not open the alley up completely.

“Of course the project meets all the safety requirements, all the federal housing requirements,” Hill said. “We did all the environmental studies, everything, before we started. Mr. Navies just can’t seem to understand that.”

Navies said that FAME Manor, like other businesses on the block, should be accessible from the main street, not a residential street. He said that he and his neighbors found out about the alley proposal in March, when the city sent them notices about FAME’s request for a zoning variance for a taller structure.

In January, the City Council gave final clearance to FAME to use the alley--nearly three months before the zoning hearing, Navies said. Neighbors appealed the alley issue to the zoning board in June. Despite recommendations by a city zoning analyst and a city Department of Transportation engineer that a wider and less congested access be found, the City Council overrode the appeal board’s decision a few days later and the project proceeded.

Charles Wright, who has lived on 27th Street for 28 years, said that although he opposes the use of the alley, there is little residents can do to stop it: “We all signed a petition against it, but it seems that the big man always outweighs the little man.”

With no more chances to appeal, Navies said he is looking for pro bono legal representation to block construction, which began last month.

Hill said that city housing codes prohibit FAME from using the 10-foot-wide Adams Boulevard driveway, which doesn’t permit access for people with disabilities. She said she will work with Navies and other residents to erect a stop sign or traffic signal at the alley to alleviate concern about traffic congestion.