Feds: City can buy land for new Decatur Youth Services center, Carrie Matthews replacement

Jan. 10—The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has cleared the way for the sale of 6.12 acres off Memorial Drive Northwest, according to the attorney for the Decatur Housing Authority board, property the city wants for a new facility that would house Decatur Youth Services' headquarters and also replace Carrie Matthews Recreation Center.

The city has been waiting more than a year to buy the land owned by the Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and its affiliated nonprofit, Housing Development Corp. The land is across the street from Carrie Matthews, which is closed due to structural issues.

The two Housing Authority boards approved in August the sale to the city for the appraised value of $170,100, but the sale couldn't happen until HUD gave the go-ahead.

"In late November, we finally got enough information to satisfy HUD and they have no objection to selling this property. The purchase agreement has been prepared, and it's ready to go to the city," attorney David Canupp told the Housing Authority board at Thursday's monthly meeting.

Canupp said the two boards do not need to vote again since they've already approved the sale. The contract will now go to the city's Legal Department, which will then present it for approval to the City Council.

Council President Jacob Ladner said HUD and the two Housing Authority boards' joint approval "is just what we've been waiting for."

Canupp told the DHA board that he thought it might be March before the City Council approves the purchase, but Ladner said he plans to move more quickly.

"I hope we can get it on the agenda and get it done as soon as possible," Ladner said.

Mayor Tab Bowling said he doesn't think the city's Legal Department will need to do much once the city receives the purchase contract.

"Once we get it, I expect it will go on the agenda and the council will vote to acquire the property," Bowling said.

The fate of the Carrie Matthews Recreation Center and the subsequent plan to buy the DHA land has been fraught with controversy and delays.

Carrie Matthews was built in 1969 and run by Parks and Recreation until Decatur Youth Services took over the center in 2017. However, it has been closed since 2019 because it has foundation issues which an engineer determined were caused by bad soil.

The council allocated $1.9 million to the Carrie Matthews project when they hoped repairs would be feasible, and $1.64 million is left after paying for the engineering evaluation, city Chief Financial Officer Kyle Demeester said Friday.

City leaders agree they want to buy the DHA land, but there's major disagreement over the fate of Carrie Matthews.

Councilman Billy Jackson said the city should save the existing Carrie Matthews facility and build a separate center on the authority property for DYS, an urban youth program that's been without a key location since Carrie Matthews closed.

"At this point, I'll wait until the purchase agreement is on the agenda to make a comment," Jackson said. "I've never been opposed to Youth Services getting its own facility. My opposition has been to the demolition of Carrie Matthews, and I'll reserve the bulk of my comments until later."

However, Bowling and the council majority are moving forward with a plan to build a new combined DYS/Carrie Matthews center on the Memorial Drive property. They've said they're not willing to spend up to $5 million to repair the Carrie Matthews facility without a guarantee that the building's floors won't sink again.

Bowling said Youth Services came up with a list of needs and wants for a new facility, and the city is in the process of setting up a budget for the project.

Youth Services is preparing to start its third straight basketball season without a home court for practice, games and open-gym play because of the closure of Carrie Matthews. The program has had to use multiple school gyms around the city for abridged seasons. It also had to use Austin Junior High School's gymnasium for its summer camp.

Youth Services will also be losing its main administration offices in the coming years when the Aquadome closes, which is slated to take place after a city recreation center is built at Wilson Morgan Park.

"Youth Services has had a tough time," Jackson said. "We really should be ashamed for letting Youth Services hang out to dry."

Bowling said Youth Services' requests for the new center are two gymnasiums, a number of training rooms that include a state-of-the-art culinary training kitchen and staff offices.

"There are tremendous needs for the city's at-risk residents," Bowling said. "And I think the council will do its best to build a facility to meet those needs."

Ladner said the Carrie Matthews and DYS issues should be separate "but multiple engineers said the (Carrie Matthews) gym floor is not salvageable." He said DYS needs as much of its program under one roof as possible.

Ladner said one suggestion he received from a District 1 resident was to demolish Carrie Matthews and replace with it with a Holcombe Rucker Park-style outdoor court.

Rucker Park is a basketball court in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, that's known for fierce basketball games that have attracted some of the country's best basketball players, include some NBA players.

"It would have nice outdoor basketball courts that are surrounded by bleachers and lights," Ladner said.

The two Housing Authority boards hired an appraiser on Dec. 13, 2021, and received an appraisal of $26,500 an acre in March.

Once the site of temporary housing for World II and Korean War soldiers, the federal Public Housing Administration transferred the two parcels to the city on June 6, 1952. Those wartime apartments were subsequently demolished.

The city sold one parcel to the Decatur Housing Authority in 1954 and the second parcel in 1982. The Housing Authority transferred the property to the nonprofit a year later.

The nonprofit board began a plan to develop the property, and the Planning Commission approved a site plan featuring a six-building apartment complex in 2009.

However, the Housing Authority's real estate attorney had trouble when researching the deeds in determining whether the Housing Authority or the nonprofit owns the property and how much of the 6.12 acres each one owns. The nonprofit board considered building apartments for low-income residents but members of both boards said in August they prefer selling the land to the city because it will be used for DYS.

"Internally, all you have to figure out (once the City Council approves the purchase) is where the money goes," Canupp told the DHA Board of Commissioners.

— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432. Twitter @DD_BayneHughes.