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About half of the 60 or so people gathered at the Lutheran Church of the Cross Monday night were unhappy with plans to build low-income/special-needs housing in the 1700 block of University Avenue. 

The building would block a neighbor’s sunlight, bring drug users into the area, take parking from commercial neighbors and add to the congestion on University Avenue, they said. 

The other half of the group – some project neighbors and some advocates for the elderly and disabled – looked at the housing much differently. It would bring life and safety to a block otherwise deserted at night, allow disabled people to visit their neighbors because all the units would be accessible, help people live productive lives as a result of the services provided to them at the project, they said. 

The nonprofit developers, Affordable Housing Associates, will ask the City Council next week for a $487,000 loan to help purchase the property. The rest of the $1.1 million purchase price is expected to come from private sources. 

Volunteers from the Berkeley Dispute Resolution Services moderated what might otherwise have become a contentious meeting. 

Developer Ali Kashani, AHA’s executive director, described the project as a 29-unit building, with 20 two-bedroom and nine three-bedroom apartments, above commercial space and a community room. 

Disabled tenants will be housed in at least 40 percent of the units. The units will be affordable to persons with very low to moderate incomes, from about $900 per month, to moderate income of $2,000 per month. 

Some people with lower incomes may get apartments if they have Section 8 certificates. 

Toolworks, a nonprofit organization, will provide services for the tenants, such as teaching them to interview prospective attendants. Services will be based on needs of the tenants. Another organization, Hearth Homes, will help raise funds for the services. 

The purpose of Monday’s meeting was for the developer to present the project and for the neighbors to give feedback. 

Several people who live near the proposed building argued that the project would hurt neighboring businesses, whose employees and customers now park in the lot where the project would be built. 

But Kashani answered that because the land is for sale, a for-profit developer would surely have built an even larger project, with less parking. Kashani said he is providing 47 parking spaces, seven for the commercial establishments on the site. The spaces that tenants do not need will be leased to neighboring commercial establishments, he said. 

Another neighbor of the project, Louise Francis, noted that this was a neighborhood of families with small children. 

“We’ve had horrible experiences with neighbors with mental disabilities,” she said. 

Kristy Feck of Toolworks said that people with psychiatric disabilities would be among the people who may live in the units. However, all tenants would be screened to make sure they have the ability to live in a community setting and add to it in a positive way. People who cannot live independently will not be permitted to live in the project, she said. 

Some people asked to be involved in the tenant-screening process, but Kashani said that would not be legal. 

Others said they were concerned that the height of the building would block sunlight and destroy the privacy of neighbors. They said a two-story building would be more appropriate for the area. 

But Berkeley Way neighbor Larry Bilick noted that there are a number of four-story and three-story buildings already in the neighborhood. He pointed out that he couldn’t afford to buy his own house, at current prices, and was “proud that (the new residents) would be moving into our neighborhood.” 

“I’ll be there on the first day to welcome them in,” he said.