Developer sues KC-area city over blocked affordable housing: ‘Patterns of segregation’
A development group is suing the city of Belton and Belton City Council over a large affordable housing project the council blocked earlier this year and is seeking a court order that would allow the project to move forward.
The lawsuit argues that the city’s actions were discriminatory and seeks damages over a vote by the council in May.
The lawsuit was filed Dec. 2 in U.S. District Court in Kansas City by attorneys representing the development group Jabal Companies, two related corporations, and the private Christian school Calvary University, which is tied to the project adjacent to the school’s campus along Westover Road.
City officials and members of the council were initially supportive of the Commons of Belton project, which would have brought 252 apartment units to an 8-acre site, and the city had been expected to contribute an undeveloped, nearly 7-acre parcel of land for the effort, the lawsuit said.
Calvary University planned to contribute to the project by selling a roughly 1-acre parcel, and the developer planned to build a soccer field for the school. With the soccer field, the school planned to build a women’s soccer program and expand its men’s program, the lawsuit said.
But after the city received opposition to the project, including discriminatory comments from the public about potential residents, attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote, council members voted against a rezoning and a preliminary development plan in May.
The lawsuit claims the city violated the Fair Housing Act and interfered with the business relationship between the school and the developers by denying the project. Attorneys wrote that the council’s decision was “based on discriminatory motives related to the race and familial status of the likely tenants of the proposed community, specifically the likelihood that the tenant population of the community will disproportionately include Black individuals and families with children.”
In a statement provided to The Star, Reed Colfax, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said the project was a solution to the mounting demand for affordable housing in Belton.
“With a rapidly expanding workforce and previous support from city officials, the proposed development would provide much-needed, affordable units for the area’s lower income families and workforce, all of whom make the great city what it is today,” Colfax said.
“We are hopeful that through the rule of law, the Commons project can swiftly resume its planning, counter the patterns of segregation currently in the area, and provide affordable housing opportunities to those in significant need. Discrimination on the basis of race and family status is unlawful and has no place in Belton or beyond.”
Belton city spokesman Aaron Smullin said the city was unable to comment on pending litigation.
Commons of Belton opposition
Plans for the Commons of Belton called for 252 rental units across seven three-story buildings at the intersection of Bong Avenue and Westover Road. Attorneys wrote that Belton city officials had worked to support the project, which would have been built on an undeveloped city parcel. As plans for the apartments began to take shape, the developers worked to acquire low-income tax credits and started working on civil engineering, studies and designs.
But as they moved through the city’s rezoning process, a forceful opposition campaign rose up against the project in which community members “used racially charged language and employed insidious racial stereotypes and code words about the types of tenants who would live in affordable housing,” the lawsuit said.
“These included references to public and affordable housing in predominantly minority communities, fears of increases in crime, suggestions of declining property values, and worries that Belton schools would be overrun by children and particularly children with special needs,” attorneys wrote.
As they considered the project at their May 27 meeting, Belton City Council members raised a handful of questions about issues like parking and public safety but ultimately voted against the effort with little discussion. The decision came after, according to the lawsuit, “many months” of the city supporting the project.
Attorneys wrote that the city’s treatment of the Commons of Belton project stood in contrast to its approval of a single-family homes project Jabal Companies was pursuing in the city, “which would be expected to be occupied by a much smaller proportion of Black households and families.”
“The denial of the rezoning application immediately and completely stopped the project,” the lawsuit said. “Today, the parcels sit undeveloped, affordable units remain scarce, housing needs increase daily, and Calvary University athletes practice off-campus.”
