Apartment Choice

Photo: Andrew Shurtleff, AP Image 1 of / 19 Caption Close Image 1 of 19 A protestors yells as Mayor Mike Signer listens during the Charlottesville City Council meeting Monday , Aug. 21, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. Anger boiled over at the first Charlottesville City Council meeting since a white nationalist rally in the city descended into violent chaos, with some residents screaming and cursing at councilors Monday night and calling for their resignations. (Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress via AP) less A protestors yells as Mayor Mike Signer listens during the Charlottesville City Council meeting Monday , Aug. 21, 2017, in Charlottesville, Va. Anger boiled over at the first Charlottesville City Council meeting ... more Photo: Andrew Shurtleff, AP Image 2 of 19 A tour bus drives past the Central Park statue of Dr. J. Marion Sims , Tuesday Aug. 22, 2017, in New York. Critics want New York City to remove the statue in Central Park that honors the doctor who used slaves i...

Sign up for the Sandy Springs Patch newsletter ! --- After two and a half hours of discussions and debate, the Sandy Springs City Council voted to approve a large mixed-use development that will accommodate the relocation of Mercedes Benz USA headquarters to the city. Council members on Tuesday voted 5 -1, with Graham McDonald opposing , a request from Ashton Woods to rezone 75.752 acres at 6615 and 6565 Glenridge Drive from R-2 (residential) to MIX to construct a mixed-use development featuring office and commercial space , single family residences and multi- family residential units . The audience, which totaled well over 100 people, included many residents in opposition and many stakeholders from the Sandy Springs business and civic communities who expressed their desires to see the project approved . Assistant City Manager Jim Tolbert provided the audience and Council a brief overview of the project, which he called “a very complex case.” City leaders approved the project w...

Grassroots efforts to establish rent control in more California cities could get a boost from the California Apartment Association ’s decision to abandon its lawsuits seeking to overturn voter-approved rent-control laws in Richmond and Mountain View. The association, which represents landlords, posted on its website late Friday that it has “suspended its legal efforts” to overturn Measure V in Mountain View and Measure L in Richmond. “I hope it emboldens other communities to not be chilled by threats of lawsuits,” said Juliet Brodie, a Stanford Law School professor who helped draft Measure V. Judges in Santa Clara and Contra Costa counties had previously ruled against the association’s motions for preliminary injunctions seeking to halt implementation of the measures approved by each city’s voters in November. A full hearing on the merits of the case in Richmond had been scheduled for May 24; that is now canceled. The association claimed, and still believes, that the laws cons...

By Beth Jacobi The recommendations of the Bend 2030 housing workgroup , recently offered to Bend City Council , may not ease the housing burden of many of the people who live and work in Bend. The recommendations are designed to increase housing for those making $40,000 to $90,000 a year. But according to the Oregon Housing Alliance , the current mean renter wage in Deschutes County is $11.86 an hour (about $24,000 a year). Many tourism industry workers , teachers, police officers, health care workers , social service workers , and families with children are suffering from our housing crisis. Bend leads the nation for rent increases. Bend’s average home sales price is over $400,000, and homelessness has gone up 31 percent since 2015 (Point in Time Count, 2017). The Bend 2030 housing workgroup has some great ideas, but the recommendations don’t ensure the development of affordable housing . City leaders must reserve valuable subsidies and incentives, ( property tax waiver , system ...

The Olathe City Council on Tuesday approved rezoning 27 acres at the southwest corner of 119 th Street and Pflumm Road for a 240- unit apartment complex . The 6-1 vote came after almost a dozen neighbors spoke against the project and dozens more wrote letters and emails to the city voicing their own opposition. But while the residents were unable to scuttle the project itself, they were able to persuade the council to ax plans to connect 123 rd Street through the development to Pflumm Road as planned, a move they warned would have dumped fast-moving traffic on the doorstep of Heatherstone Elementary School . “If we are going to make considerations and alterations to the infrastructure of our city based on residents that are not here in these apartments now, I plead with you to protect the citizens that are here and living in this neighborhood now,” said Tim Laughlin, who lives across the street from the school. The thin strip of land has sat unused since being rezoned in 2001 and ...

SHERMAN OAKS >> Barry Cullison stared at a 3-foot- wide tree stump that once bore the weight of a pine at least six stories tall. Across the historic Chase Knolls Garden Apartments where he lives, dozens of other mature trees were being cut down: eucalyptus, ficus, liquidambar, jacaranda, magnolia and more. “It’s heartbreaking,” said Cullison, 70, a retired actor who has lived at the Chase Knolls complex for 21 years. “This can’t be undone. They’ve decimated the trees. The trees are coming down. And all we can do is listen to the chain saws.” Chase Knolls tenants have been fighting to save the “garden” inside the garden apartments . But the owners of the complex at 13401 Riverside Drive have said they need to cut down trees and destroy 200 carports for new plumbing, power lines and other utility upgrades. • RELATED STORY: Residents of historic Chase Knolls apartments challenge city on expansion Residents have been fighting the changes. A tenant group tried to stop the tree...

The Mobile City Council has approved the sale of the Water Street building known as City Hall North , clearing its way for redevelopment as an apartment complex , and a consultant on the project said that groundbreaking could come next spring. District 2 Councilman Levon Manzie announced his "100 percent support" for the project and pledged to assist developers any way he could. "I can't think of a better way to describe 350 St. Joseph Street than to say it's not now needed for public or municipal purposes," Manzie said as the council voted. "It has been a blight on that corner of DeTonti Square for a long time. And that entrance is one of the gateways to our beautiful city." "I know those employees who worked at old City Hall North are not sad to see it go," commented Council President Gina Gregory . "It will be a tremendous improvement." Occupying a roughly triangular lot where St. Joseph Street hits Water Street , the bu...