An official of a property management firm looking to develop 42 acres of land off Dana Road for low income housing was met with stiff opposition from residents of neighboring subdivisions at a public hearing Friday night.

About 70 of them showed up at Dana Road Elementary to hear about plans by Monroe, La.-based Sunquest Properties, Inc., to file an application for federal tax credits and a rental assistance program through the Mississippi Home Corporation to build single-family housing on the site, just inside city limits adjacent to Danawood subdivision.

Susie Cameron, a regional manager with the company, read from a prepared text the financial details on the 74 single-family detached houses, including rental rates and income qualifications. Cameron deflected almost all questions from residents, which dealt primarily with the time frame for approving the application.

The president of Sunquest Properties, William G. Brockman, is a managing member a limited partnership called Warren HDI that is submitting the application. Brockman was not at the meeting, nor was independent local realtor Greg Thomas, owner of the land on which the proposed development would be built.

According to information Cameron read to residents, the 74 houses would be developed at a per-house cost of $150,000 and would be subject to maximum rental rates as established by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program. The MHC program would assist residents with rent up to $50, paid out of project rental assistance.

The rental rates for a three bedroom house would be between $502 and $625. Tenants would qualify if their income is at or below 60 percent of the area median income. Although the tract of land lies within the city limits, it did not specify whether that meant the city’s median income or the county’s.

According to data just before the last U.S. Census count in 2000, the city’s median household income was $28,466. The county’s was $35,056.

Reached late Friday after the hearing, Thomas said the correspondence he had with Brockman in person and via e-mail did not indicate the houses would be for rent.

&#8220I was told they would retail between $140,000 and $170,000. I had no knowledge of any rental rates,” Thomas said, adding that the nature of the development was not presented to him the way Cameron’s information was presented to the residents.

A majority of the people at Friday night’s hearing signed a petition asking the city and county to oppose the development, citing fears of &#8220a negative impact on our neighborhood,” including decreased property values and increased crime.

Mary Buckley and Barbara Sartor, both residents of Danawood subdivision, organized the petition drive and have passed out fliers to neighbors in the days since a sign appeared along Dana Road advertising the public hearing.

&#8220This is happening in our back yard, and we’ve been told different things as to what this whole thing is supposed to be,” Buckley said.

An architect has been hired to design the houses and lay out the subdivision, Cameron told the residents.

If the application is approved and the drawings and layout deemed appropriate by the city zoning board, it is likely to get the go-ahead by the city.

&#8220There are areas in the city that would be much more comparable for this than here,” said Kemper Ehrhardt, a Danawood resident at the meeting, who added that he owns about 73 acres adjacent to Thomas’ property.