A proposal to rezone property downtown for a new student apartment complex was debated at Monday’s City Council meeting.

The proposed complex would be located at the corner of Locust and Hitt streets downtown and would provide 48 student units with 160 beds.

Graduate student Alexandria Baca opened up the public hearing on the topic by criticizing the developer for calling her just last week to tell her she should move by May. Baca has a lease signed through August 2013 at a home now proposed to be torn down for the new complex and was livid at the news.

“I just feel like this isn’t right,” Baca said.

Graduate student Stephen Arnold spoke on the topic as well, emphasizing how hard it is to find affordable housing downtown.

“There isn’t affordable housing in the downtown with ample notice much less the short notice I have been given,” Arnold said.

Jeff Pernikoff, developer on the project, said he just became aware of the tenants’ situation and his organization is working with them to find accommodations.

The council also discussed parking concerns with the development. The complex is located in a densely populated area that already had parking issues.

Mayor Bob McDavid said building a complex with limited parking isn’t necessarily a bad thing considering the city’s goal of having a city more reliant on public transportation than automobiles.

“They’ll have to recruit clients who don’t need or have cars, and I think the city would be better for it,” McDavid said.

However, council members and other citizens spoke about the lack of evidence to show that students will not bring cars. Council ended up approving a proposal from Fifth Ward Councilwoman Helen Anthony requiring the developer to put in 50 parking spaces.

Council also received a report concerning the Enhanced Enterprise Zone they approved in February. The city has been in an uproar regarding the EEZ’s designation of 60 percent of the city as blighted.

Approximately 15 speakers spoke on the topic unanimously advocating that council rescind the map they approved last month.

Columbia resident Jeremy Root said putting 60 percent of the city under a blight designation using only poverty and unemployment data without asking for citizen input is simply unacceptable.

“I would like you to rescind this map,” Root said.

His statement was echoed by every speaker after him.

Dean Anderson said Columbia was recently ranked the hardest working community in the country so “we must be doing something right.” He said many of the reasons the city was ranked high require substantial taxes and offering the tax abatements in the EEZ is simply unfair to other citizens.

“If they don’t want to pay their fair share then we really don’t need them in our community,” Anderson said.

Anthony eventually offered a motion that the council passed allowing for three separate public hearings on the EEZ issue in upcoming months.

Council members also authorized a settlement agreement between the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Boone County and the MU Board of Curators for continued efforts to improve the water quality of Hinkson Creek.

The settlement will investigate the issue for an initial four-year period and then solutions will be proposed.

Third Ward Councilman Gary Kespohl brought up a concern that the new apartment complex on the corner of College Avenue and Walnut Street recently has told the city it will be putting in a 400-space parking garage.

This came as a surprise to the council and was not received well because of a perceived breaking of trust.