Mount Pleasant Residents Upbeat On Development Plan But Still Have Many Questions

Residents of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood are generally upbeat about the proposed demolition of the existing aging housing and new construction of apartments, but still have many questions.

Since coverage by the New Britain Progressive in January about the large and vaguely described plans by the New Britain Housing Authority to demolish the Mount Pleasant neighborhood and replace it with new buildings, the Housing Authority has been making a concerted effort to reach out to residents of the neighborhood on the proposed changes.

In late 2022, the information shared by the Housing Authority left many questions about what the future might be for Mount Pleasant, such as the number of replacement units on site, the prospects for residents’ return to the newly rebuilt neighborhood, rent levels and the future ownership of the long publicly-owned housing.

Interviews by the New Britain Progressive of Mount Pleasant residents appeared to find that the Housing Authority’s outreach since then has answered many of those questions. Residents were generally upbeat about the prospects of being in new apartments and seeing the aging, long-neglected Mount Pleasant housing buildings demolished. Residents also appeared to be confident, from what the Housing Authority told them, that they would be able to return to the newly built apartments.

Residents described having attended meetings held by the Housing Authority about its plans, and at least one resident mentioned having been visited by a representative of the Housing Authority to explain the proposal.

But the residents still appeared to have many questions or did not know about the specifics of important elements of the plans, such as the process of moving out of the to-be demolished buildings and for temporary living arrangements during construction, and how their right to return to the new apartments later would work. Other questions related to how their rent will work or how paying for utilities will work. At least one resident was very concerned about the prospect of paying for directly for utilities. Utility prices have been high. Mount Pleasant utilities are, apparently, currently incorporated within residents’ rents.

The Housing Authority maintains that all current Mount Pleasant residents will be able to return to the newly built apartments, and that rent levels will remain equivalent to what they are now.

The Housing Authority also maintains that it will fulfill its one-to-one unit replacement requirement on the current Mount Pleasant site, itself, and it says that it plans to even add units if it can acquire an adjacent property, recently rezoned by the city for apartments.

But, while the Housing Authority appears to have advanced plans far enough along to have hired an architect, developer and other consultants, it appears to be maintaining that the demolition and construction proposal is still too undeveloped to publicly disclose many of the details of what is planned for the neighborhood of perhaps a thousand people. The tight control of information also appears to include the Housing Authority taking the position that it, alone, wants to have control the flow of information to the Mount Pleasant residents.

The Mount Pleasant demolition and rebuilding plans appear likely to continue to move forward in coming months, as various funding and real estate decisions lie ahead.