Augusta Commissioners will not support a planned development that includes low-income housing for Deans Bridge Road.

Commissioners voted 6-2 with one abstention for Commissioner Calvin Holland's motion to "totally and completely" deny the mixed-income housing development request and to encourage the Augusta Housing Authority to look at vacant lots off Martin Luther King Boulevard as possible sites for the project.

The proposed complex, a project of Progressive Redevelopment Inc.; Augusta Affordable Housing Corp., an agency of the Augusta Housing Authority; and The NorthSouth Cos., would be financed primarily with low-income housing tax credits. The developers need the city's support to enhance their chances of receiving a state grant and tax credits.

Only Commissioners Joe Bowles and Don Grantham voted against the motion. Mayor Pro Tem Betty Beard abstained. Commissioner Jerry Brigham was absent.

The vote came after four speakers blasted the proposed project in commission chambers packed with residents of adjacent subdivisions, the Richmond County Neighborhood Alliance and the West Augusta Neighborhood Association.

Former District 5 Commissioner Bobby Hankerson presented commissioners with petitions signed by residents of Breeze Hill and The Hampton's subdivisions opposing the development they say will devalue their property.

Asia Adams, the vice president of The Hampton's Homeowners Association, said homes in the area sell from $150,000 to $200,000.

"How can we struggle to pay mortgages of $1,200 a month working by the sweat of our brow while in our back yard will be people paying not a cent?" she asked.

Attorney Sam Nicholson, representing the residents, said it was an issue of fairness.

"When they were approached to buy their houses they were told this was going to be an elaborate project," he said, displaying the original site plan that was used to market The Hampton's with commercial and other phases.

"What the people bought into has been abandoned," he said. "Is that fair? When public housing is placed next to their property, the value of their property goes down."

Mr. Nicholson said although the plan presented by the developers gave timelines for the apartments, there were none for the senior, single-family and commercial phases.

"All this nice stuff they're talking about comes at a later time," he said. "This later time is unknown."

Mr. Nicholson said the developers would get their millions of dollars from Washington to develop the project and build only the apartments, leaving the nearby subdivisions with a housing project.

Commissioner Andy Cheek showed a map of where he thought the project should go.

"Martin Luther King Boulevard," he said. "There are several large areas in this dilapidated corridor ... areas of vacant lots and health hazards."

Building the development there would allow residents access to hospitals and transit lines, and would turn that area around instead of continuing to be the dumping ground that it is, Mr. Cheek said.