After months of petitioning Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer, several residents and homeowners groups are opposing an apartment project in the Highview neighborhood.Frontgate Apartments is a 212-unit apartment complex being proposed by LDG Development in an area near Outer Loop. It has the support of the mayor’s office as an affordable housing project, but residents have complained it will lower property values.Jon Bingham is a board member of the Apple Valley Property Owners. He says residents are willing to negotiate with developer, but that the current complex being planned is too big for the area."So they can come back to the table and talk to us about a reasonable, smaller size that would be a blessing to those residents as well as a blessing to the community and we can get to the negotiating table. But if they are going to shove all or nothing, we will go for nothing," he says.Bingham and others will attend a hearing on Monday morning that is appealing a ruling by the Board of Zoning Adjustment, which exempted developers from certain city provisions.Earlier this year, Fischer's office got into a war of words with Metro Councilman James Peden, R-23, who complained about a "low-income" housing project being built in his district. But a city report conducted last year showed that less than two percent of the housing in Peden’s district is subsidized and developers have stressed the project is not government funded.A Fischer spokesperson has said the complex is meant to provide affordable housing for middle-income earners, but Highview residents against the project have complained that the mayor is ignoring their concerns."I have spoken with Mayor Fischer directly on more than one occasion, and repeatedly he ignores any of the community concerns or questions and will not come out and face the community," says Bingham.A spokesperson for LDG Development could not be reached for comment.
