The Crew pressed the city of Columbus to "pay more than double its initial taxpayer contribution" for additional development around the club's new stadium, causing the affordable-housing component and the projected jobs number associated with the project to be "quietly reduced," according to documents cited by Bill Bush of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. Talking points handed out by stadium backers last December "showed the project creating a total of 885 new residential units near the new stadium with 'a minimum of 20% affordable units.'" Plans then called for "approximately 850 residential units with 'at least 20%' affordable housing." However, during negotiations between the city and club over the next six months, the number of total residential units the team is to build "dropped by about half, to 440," while the requirement for affordable housing was "negotiated out of the contract, replaced with the 'developer's good faith efforts to comply.'" City officials originally had "demanded affordable units in early versions of the contract with the Crew." But documents show that requirement for roughly 177 new affordable units "transformed into an 'effort' to build 88." Meanwhile, what was once "billed as a commitment by the team's owners to construct 270,000 square feet of new commercial space is now listed as 120,000 square feet of office space in the final contract signed by city officials in late September" (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 10/31).
