The plan had  been rejected by the St. Bernard Parish Planning Committee. It is  at the heart of a  debate between parish residents and developers.

During the meeting, Councilman Wayne J. Landry, without going into detail, announced that the appeal would not be heard. In an interview after the meeting, Landry said he received the paperwork late Monday night, giving the council inadequate time to review it. With this rejection, Landry said, the developers have two options: give up or return to the planning committee, which had already denied developers access to the tracts of land needed to begin construction.

John Relman, an attorney representing the Dallas-based developers, Provident Realty Advisors, said he was confused about the decision. “There was no clear articulation for the denial,” Relman said. “We still don’t know why we were denied.”  Relman did not say how the developers plan to move forward.

Relman attempted to make a lengthy presentation to the council, but Landry cut him short, citing a two-minute speaking limit for public comments. 

Developers argue that the complex will provide struggling New Orleans residents with an affordable place to live, while neighbors say it will lead to an increase in crime and a decrease in surrounding property values. The 72-unit complexes would reserve 50 percent of their space for tenants who make about $35,000 or less annually, and 20 percent for those who make less than $20,000 per year.

“The first and foremost concern is for our own safety and welfare,” said Dana Arcement, a licensed real estate broker and parish resident. “We, as a community, are not in favor of those types of developments here. We pride ourselves in single-family home ownership and we do not want these developments to be built here because all they do is perpetuate drugs and crimes. ”

Several residents spoke up during the tense meeting to voice their disapproval of the project.

“We have been ambushed by Katrina and we don’t want to be ambushed again,” said Polly Boudreaux, president of the Lexington Place Civic Corporation, a housing association. “We have made great strides. We struggled to build our neighborhood back to pre-Katrina. We don’t need more drugs and more crime.”

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, which supports the plan, did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

After the meeting, some residents questioned the developers’ motives.  “They have nothing else to look out for but their own self interest, their own enrichment on this,” Arcement said. “They do not care about the citizens of this parish.”

Doug Reed, who said he owns several apartment complexes in the area, pointed to his inability to find tenants.  He says the proposed units would add more housing  to a neighborhood that is still struggling to fill empty buildings. “You have to look at the need,” he said.

Residents say that pre-Katrina, the parish suffered from the types of crime that the mixed income housing complex would bring back.

“We’ve been through it,” Arcement said. “Katrina wiped all that out. We’re looking for a clean slate here. We are looking for a new beginning. We are not a dumping ground, either, for low-income developments to be built here. We just do not want it.”

Reed denied, as The Times-Picayune reported on Tuesday, that race issues are fueling the tensions. “We aren’t talking about race issues here. We are talking about dense rentals,” he said. “We know there is a need for that but we just don’t like this plan. It’s not about ‘not in my back yard’ it’s about ‘do it in a better setting that managed is properly.’”

“We have white trash in this parish, white criminals in this parish,” Arcement said. “We don’t want them living here to protect the best interests of all our residents.”