Broadway Commons developer warns of legal action if Lorain City Council doesn’t approve plans for facility

The development group that proposed building a facility for homeless citizens in Lorain told city officials at a meeting Jan. 8 at that if the plan isn’t approved by City Council next week, it will examine the legal options.

“We believe we’ve done this by the book from day one,” said Laura Boustani, vice president of external affairs for CHN Housing Partners, one of the developers of the proposed site told officials. “We’d be very hard pressed, and this is not normally how we do business, because we don’t have this kind of opposition to our projects anywhere else.

“We’d be very hard pressed to examine the legal options after this if the vote goes down.”

The project is slated for Broadway and East 21st Street and would house 62 citizens without homes with 12 of the units reserved for military veterans.

The facility would be open to adult women and men, but not children.

Council’s City Federal Programs Committee met to discuss provisions of a contract between Broadway Commons and the Lorain Police Department.

The agreement, or memorandum of understanding, mandates the development group incorporate a police substation in the facility where a Lorain police officer would work onsite.

The agreement also requires the developer to increase the cost of the project from $16 million to $20 million to offset costs of the substation as well as the officer’s salary to monitor the complex, to which the developers agreed.

However, the city asked for the officer to monitor the facility for eight hours and the contract limited those hours to four hours a day, officials said.

Lorain Police Department Chief James McCann attended the meeting to answer questions about the contract between the city and developer.

In regards to the decrease in patrol hours, McCann said he doesn’t know if that will be sufficient.

“Will that be enough? I don’t know,” McCann said. “Will it be too much? I don’t know. Will it do the job? I don’t know.”

As far as when the officer would be asked to monitor the facility, would be solely based on statistics, he said.

For example, if the facility has a large volume of calls in the evening, the officer would be assigned to work during those hours, McCann said.

“It’s all driven by statistics,” he said.

McCann also questioned whether sexual offenders will be permitted in the facility.

Boustani told him those classified as offenders wouldn’t be eligible to reside in the facility.

However, the development group has no plans to continue monitoring the potential criminal activity of the tenants because they will only conduct one initial background check, she said.

Additionally, McCann asked that a panel of five people be appointed to a board, with a representative from the Lorain Police Department as one of its members, to which Boustani agreed.

Prior to Boustani’s warning, city officials debated the proposed plan, some who strongly oppose the project.

“I’ve done my homework; I’ve been around this project since its inception, and I’m frustrated because I can’t get the answers I ask,” said Councilman-at-Large Tony Dimacchia. “Someone’s making money off this project, and the city does not benefit from this project, rather it jeopardizes other businesses around there because they don’t support it for whatever reasons.

“I can’t support it. I understand the need. I do. When you folks are gone, we have to deal with the lack of economic development. We have to deal with sustaining our union contracts. We have to deal with keeping people employed in this community.

“This whole thing doesn’t sit right with me.”

The last statement drew a round of applause echoed in Council chambers.

Councilman-at-Large Joseph Koziura also spoke against the project.

“I’m opposed to it primarily because I am just tired of the city of Lorain taking care of all the problems in Lorain County,” Koziura said.

Council unanimously voted Jan. 2 to allow the legislation regarding the proposed Broadway Commons to go to a third and final reading which is expected to be voted on at its next regular council meeting Jan. 16.