Cedar Rapids council expects comments on proposals for Monroe, Vernon Inn sites

Neighbors with questions are expected at a City Council meeting on Tuesday to weigh in on rezoning proposals for the former Monroe Elementary School and the former Vernon Inn restaurant.

Neighbors objected at Cedar Rapids school board and City Planning Commission meetings in October to the plans for the closed Monroe school, 3200 Pioneer Ave. SE, which the Affordable Housing Network Inc. wants to transform into 19 apartments while building 24 rental houses on school property next to the school.

The housing non-profit agency is calling its development Monroe Villas.

In the second rezoning matter, a latest proposal for the Vernon Inn property at 2663 Mount Vernon Rd. SE calls for demolishing the former restaurant, which has been closed for more than a year, to make way for a new commercial development.

However, Realtor Larry Sharp, of Sharp & Co. Realtors, said Monday that a plan to build an auto-parts store on the site has fallen through.

Kum & Go had sought to rezone the Vernon Inn property for a new store, but the City Council in January 2012 decided that such a development would disrupt neighbors too much and turned down the rezoning request.

Kum & Go since has built a new store closer to downtown at 1420 Mount Vernon Rd. SE.

As for the Monroe school proposal, the Cedar Rapids school board in October approved the sale for $250,000 to the Affordable Housing Network Inc. and its Monroe Villas proposal.

The sale is contingent on the $9 million housing project securing funding via low-income-housing tax credits from the Iowa Finance Authority in March and on the project winning rezoning from the City Council.

Neighbors who oppose the Monroe Villas plan have formed the Monroe Neighborhood Pride Committee. In October, they told the school board that the project will harm the neighborhood around the school for a variety of reasons, including increased traffic and the potential impact affordable housing will have on the neighborhood's property values.

Neighbors also voiced those objections in October to the City Planning Commission, which backed the Monroe Villas proposal on an 8-0 vote.

Commission members said that the Monroe Villas project was a good example of infill development, which the city has been promoting, and they said the project would provide alternative housing choices for southeast Cedar Rapids and would serve as a buffer between existing apartments to the south and existing single-family homes to the north.

On Monday, Joe Lock, executive director of the Affordable Housing Network Inc., said the 19 apartments to be built in the school and the 24 single-family homes to be built on the nearly 8 acres of school property will be three-bedroom or four-bedroom residences aimed at "working class" families who earn between $28,000 and $44,000 a year. Such affordable family residential units are needed in the city, he said.

Tax-credit funding, if secured, will allow monthly rents to be kept between $650 and $750, he said.