St. Leger apartment redevelopment advances

The approval of a rezoning will allow the redevelopment of Evanston's St. Leger Apartments to move forward.

Cincinnati City Council on May 8 approved of a rezoning of 1.75 acres at 3257 Gilbert Avenue from Residential Mixed District to RM-0.7 Residential Multi-Family, which will allow the Model Group to demolish the current building and replace it with a 26-unit multi-family apartment structure.

Residential mixed zoning districts do not permit new multi-family dwellings of four or more units.

To qualify for an apartment in the new development, renters must make no more than 60 percent of the area median income.

Built in 1905, the 81-unit St. Leger Apartments has in recent years been the focus of criminal activity, an abnormal number of police runs, and building code violations. Six homicides have occurred at or around the complex in the past five years.

Despite some residents' concerns that the development might hinder the neighborhood's ability to create a viable commercial corridor near the Five Points intersection, the Evanston Community Council voted unanimously to support the zoning change at its meeting on February 21.

The Model Group is no stranger to the Five Points area, having rehabilitated 3300 Woodburn Avenue into Woodburn Pointe, which contains 24 units of affordable housing for senior citizens.

Previous reading on BC:
Planning Commission Friday: IDCs, Music Hall, St. Leger Apartments (4/4/13)
Loan, property sale aid two affordable housing projects (6/25/12)
OHFA awards $2M in affordable housing tax credits to Anna Louise Inn, North Rhine (7/5/10)
Two Cincinnati projects win federal tax credits (7/7/09)
Cincinnati supports tax credits for Evanston rental project (3/18/09)