WL City Council approves contentious high rise development 5-4

After nine members of the West Lafayette public had said their piece Monday night, with following statements from a lawyer and the mayor, the council voted.

For a few beats, if only because of a misspoken final vote tally, it appeared a high rise student apartment complex was kept out of town, while several of the nine who had spoken variably fist-pumped or exchanged the hopeful glances of those whose ears may have deceived them.

But that same number went crestfallen once the West Lafayette city council vote was corrected to reflect a 5-4 tally in favor of the 13-story development that was defended by developers as necessary to address the city's housing shortage.

The apartments, to be named The Standard at West Lafayette, would occupy a plot on the 200-block of Wood Street that the council rezoned as a planned residential development.

City residents say the apartments side step a clear need for more student housing with a place that is unnecessarily luxurious or expensive. Ryan Munden, a lawyer for RTS law representing Landmark Properties, said the apartments would provide 560 new beds with double the study space per bed than any other project in West Lafayette. Munden said Landmark Properties could not guess at what rent on the apartments would be.

“Is it increasing the (supply) and filling that, because it’s the only thing available?” West Lafayette resident Andrew Lane said before the vote. “Are kids maxing out their student loans just to pay for housing? Just to pay interest on it?”

“You wanna know what’s affordable?” Aaron Abell, who lives on Salisbury Street, said. “The apartments that are being torn down. I get that we need to address the supply and demand problem, but surely we can that without demolishing the housing for those who already live here.”

Johnny Jhang, a resident of the apartments which currently occupy the development zone, told The Exponent he pays about $800 a month in rent.