The Truesdale Board of Aldermen held a public hearing before their June 26 meeting last week to hear from citizens about a proposed apartment development at Booneslick Road and S Depot Street. 

The development, being built by Haas Homes, would include two buildings housing eight units. The units would be divided between two and three bedrooms, each with one and a half bathrooms. 

They are planned to be two stories, with the lower level housing a living room and kitchen area and the upper level housing the bedrooms. They also plan to construct basements with washer and dryer hookups. 

Scott said they plan for the apartments to be more of an upscale option, with rents starting around $1,200 to $1,500 a month. 

There was one citizen, Gary Hortman, who had some concerns he wanted addressed during the hearing. 

Hortman said he owned one of the adjacent businesses and was concerned with tenants trespassing on his property. He also asked if there were any plans to turn the apartments into Section 8 or government subsidized housing. 

Scott Haas, Co-Owner of Haas Homes assured him that there were no plans to turn the apartments into Section 8 housing, as he had enumerated in the previous meeting. 

“No, we generally don’t do that, Section 8 in general,” Haas said.

Hortman was largely concerned with activities that he said the previous tenants of the property had taken part in. He claimed there had been criminal activities by previous tenants although he was assured by Haas that they choose their tenants carefully and visit their properties often. 

“I’m just gonna tell you, we just want you to understand, whatever the city decides is up to the city, but whatever happens on my property, I’m going to bring it to you,” Hortman said to Haas at the meeting. 

Hortman said he would prefer it if Haas constructed a privacy fence on their property line to enumerate where renters’ property ended and his begins. 

Later in the meeting, after some discussion, the board approved Haas’ site plan with a condition for a privacy fence to appease Hortman’s requests. 

The conditional approval called for a “decorative” three foot fence on a retaining wall on the east side of the property. While Haas was given some discretion for the material and design of the fence, the word decorative was used to eliminate the use of chain link or barbed wire fencing. 

After the decision, Haas said he hoped to begin construction soon so that they could move forward with the development.