text: BUILDER'S LOW-COST RENTAL UNITS REJECTED - Sun Sentinel
  BUILDER'S LOW-COST RENTAL UNITS REJECTED
  PEMBROKE PARK -- A developer's plans to build low-cost rental apartments five blocks from Town Hall have been axed by commissioners, some of whom say the project may attract more low-income families to the town.
  Commissioners Bill Lyddon, Linda Schwartz and Frank Badalamente balked at developer Larry Levinson's plans to build the Diamond Luxury Apartments, a project that would include 92 units in six buildings on 5.5 acres in the 3600 block of Southwest 52nd Avenue. Each of the apartments would have 700 square feet.
  "If we had wanted to attract minorities and low-income people to this town, then we would have applied to (the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) to give us a grant so we could build a housing project ourselves," Lyddon said. "If these apartments are built can you imagine what it will do to Southwest 52nd Avenue? We are trying to upgrade the area, not make it worse."
  Schwartz said the project could cause the neighborhood to decline further.
  "If this other project goes through, then we would be creating a slum on this street. Look at all the problems with the two other (low-cost apartment) buildings. It's a mess over there," Schwartz said. "The developer has not shown us ... where he will provide playing areas for children or even proper parking places. What kind of care is he going to give his tenants, and what kind of people do you think could possibly live in apartments that are 700 square feet and only have one bathroom?"
  Levinson, who paid about $700,000 for the property, promised to fight for the project at today's 7 p.m. town meeting.
  "Schwartz doesn't want this because it's on her street," Levinson said. "This is nothing more than an issue of pure prejudice and bigotry by Schwartz and Lyddon against people who live in low-cost rental apartments. We are going to fight this at the commission meeting ... because what they have done is illegal. They can't stop me from building on my own land."
  While Mayor Barney Koretsky and Clerk-Commissioner Theresa Ciummo voted for Levinson's project, saying it would be a boon to the town, the other three commissioners said they were simply echoing the sentiments of several residents who think that low-cost rental units could cause property values to plunge.
  Schwartz and several residents who live on Southwest 52nd Avenue said they opposed the project because two other apartment complexes on the same street -- Blue Lake Villas and the Crosswinds Apartments -- are already a sore spot. She cited drug problems and domestic disputes.
  "We certainly do not need another ghetto building in this town, or on this street," said Schwartz's neighbor, Joan Fisher. "Our property values are going down totally and anyone with half a brain would be against this project."
  And at the town's Sept. 5 commission meeting, another neighbor, Shirley Kilgore, argued that: "No more low rentals are needed where people hang around and play loud music, dance and pull down their drawers. Better units should be built, but small units only cause trash to move in."