By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A federal agency has put a stop - at least temporarily - to the Cincinnati Metropolitan Housing Authority's plan to tear down the English Woods housing project because of opposition from City Hall and surrounding neighborhoods.

In a letter this week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development told the housing authority that it would not allow the demolition until Mayor Charlie Luken and English Woods residents sign off on the project.

The denial is a milestone in the neighborhood's six-month battle over the housing authority's $5.1 million plan to raze the project and replace it with single-family homes. Councilman John Cranley called the federal decision "a victory for democracy."

U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati, had been pressuring HUD to deny the application because he said the housing authority hasn't listened to residents of English Woods, Westwood and Price Hill.

"I think they've given lip service to date," Chabot said. "This puts the residents in the driver's seat, which is where I think they should have been all along. It shouldn't have come to this."

CMHA Director Donald Troendle said the authority has had more than 40 meetings with residents - and will continue to work toward consensus. But leaving English Woods alone is not an option, he said.

"Our renters are voting with their feet, they're not going to English Woods and the occupancy continues to drop very quickly," he said. "The bottom line is, people can critique CMHA's process, but there have been few voices of people who say this is a high-quality place to raise their family. And that's why we have refused to take the status quo approach or the easy way out."

English Woods, in North Fairmount but considered by the city to be its own neighborhood, is a 700-unit housing project CMHA says has become outmoded, crime-ridden and blighted. Still, many residents say they don't want to leave, and some west-siders worry that an influx of residents, Section 8 vouchers in hand, would disrupt their communities.

"The west side thanks God for Steve Chabot," said Peter G. Witte, the president of the Price Hill Community Council and a Republican candidate for Cincinnati City Council. "Finally, someone has done something to talk some sense into CMHA and HUD."

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com