A narrowly divided Common Council voted to send a plan to lock in affordable housing at the Stony Run apartment complex back to committee. The vote on Tuesday came after tenants at the complex told lawmakers they had not been included in talks between Mayor Steve Noble and the complex’s owners and that they needed more time to study the proposed deal.

The proposed regulatory agreement between the city and Aker Companies would require the company to keep rents affordable to those making no more than 120 percent of the Area Median Income for the next 40 years. The deal would also require the company to set up a capital improvements fund to cover maintenance and repairs at the complex. Current tenants would also retain rights granted under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.

In return, the company would receive an official designation as “affordable housing” that would allow Aker to access low-interest federal loans. Aker officials have said that the deal would allow them to complete a renovation and repair project at the complex that has stalled due to rising interest rates.

On Tuesday, the council was asked to vote in a resolution authorizing Noble to enter into negotiations towards a final deal with the complex owners. But the Stony Run Tenants Union and the progressive advocacy group For the Many called on lawmakers to temporarily set aside the resolution to give them time to hire an attorney to review the proposal. Tenants Union organizing committee member Teresa Greene told lawmakers that a meeting Monday between the committee and Aker representatives had left the tenant organizers “totally conflicted” about the deal.

Greene added that Aker representatives told the committee that they had used language in the agreement that may have been incorrect in order to ensure access to funding to complete the repair project, and that rather than a negotiation, the terms of the deal had been dictated by City Hall.

“At the conclusion of the meeting we made it clear that we had a lot of unanswered questions for the city and [the state Department of Homes and Community Renewal] and that we needed to be assured that the proposal to convert Stony Run from market rent to workforce affordable housing would not jeopardize current ETPA guidelines,” Greene told lawmakers during public comment.

Councilmembers were split on whether to push ahead with the regulatory agreement or put the process on hold. Alderman Michael Olivieri (D-Ward 7) is a former Stony Run tenant. Olivieri said that he’s fielded dozens of inquiries from his former neighbors and believes they’re sincere in their desire to get a clearer picture of the full implications of the deal.

“Never once did anybody ask me to vote no,” said Olivieri. “They simply asked for more time.”

But other lawmakers expressed concern that pushing back the vote could kill the deal entirely; some said that there appeared to be some false information circulating among critics of the proposal and pointed out that the resolution simply authorized the mayor to begin working out a final agreement.

Alderman Rennie Scott-Childress (D-Ward 3) said that while he supports moving the measure forward, Noble has a duty to ensure tenants were at the table during future negotiations.

“This needs to be a test of the mayor’s supposed promises of transparency,” said Scott-Childress. “When [Noble] ran for mayor last time he claimed he was going to have a transparent government, but we have seen numerous instances where this has not been the case and this is one of them.”

In the final vote, Majority Leader Rita Worthington (D-Ward 4) was joined by Olivieri, Naimah Muhammad (D-Ward 5), Tony Davis (D-Ward 6) and Michele Hirsch (D-Ward 9) in favor of sending the resolution back to committee. Scott-Childress, Barbara Hill (D-Ward 1) Carl Frankel (D-Ward 2) and Steve Schabot (D-Ward 9) voted to approve the resolution.