The Times-Dispatch’s Michael Paul Williams recently wrote about a residential development planned at the former St. Elizabeth’s School in North Richmond’s Highland Park community. Apparently, neighbors are concerned about the scope of the 68 apartment project:

Jeanne Boisineau and her husband were dazzled by the craftsmanship of the two-story brick colonial in Highland Park. But they were not enamored of the view.

“When we saw this place, we thought, ‘God, it’s just too good to pass up.’” she recalled. “But I was really nervous, because the place across the street looked like crack heaven.”

Across the street was the former St. Elizabeth’s School, which closed in 1982. Four years after Boisineau moved to the North Richmond neighborhood, the abandoned, weather-battered school remains an eyesore.

But relief, in the form of a proposed $8 million residential development at the Fourqurean Lane site, has been greeted with wariness by residents of the Highland Park enclave known as Green Park.

The developer, United Methodist Urban Ministries of Richmond, wants to move forward on Chestnut Hill Commons by spring or summer, said the Rev. N. David Cooper, the organization’s executive director.

Original plans called for 68 one-, twoor three-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $600 to $900, aimed at a “work-force” clientele with incomes between $27,000 and $41,000. The project also would include a community center with meeting space and a computer lab. The plan’s density and lack of owner-occupied dwellings met with community resistance.

“We have a great deal of respect for [Cooper] and what his mission is,” said Boisineau, president of the Green Park Civic Association. “It’s just the scope of it and the scale of it is just too large for our neighborhood.”

Chestnut Hill Commons is being proposed amid a wave of redevelopment in Highland Park. Plans are afoot to demolish the low-income developments of Dove Court, Carrington Gardens and North Ridge apartments and replace them with mixed-income communities. But even as those communities are prepared for the wrecking ball, their stigma lingers in the misgivings surrounding Chestnut Hill Commons.

Read more about development plans in Highland Park in Williams’ article.