CORPUS CHRISTI — The Corpus Christi Housing Authority withdrew from the D.N. Leathers Townhomes project because the land was contaminated, according to records released Thursday from a state agency.

The Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, responding to a public information request by the Caller-Times, released an e-mail message from the Housing Authority disclosing the reason for abandoning the project. That e-mail was not included in a Housing Authority response to a similar request from the newspaper.

The Housing Authority has declined to answer questions about D.N. Leathers, a 130-unit public housing project near T.C. Ayers Park on the Northside.

The authority met with neighbors in December about the project, and residents have been curious why no construction has started. Local activist group Citizens for Environmental Justice released portions of the report two weeks ago, surmising it was why the project stalled.

The Housing Authority e-mail to the state agency confirms Citizens for Environmental Justice’s suspicions.

“DN Leathers Townhomes, LP will have to withdraw our forward commitment for the D.N. Leathers Townhomes project pursuant to a Phase II Environmental finding that makes the site unacceptable to develop,” according to the e-mail from Deborah Sherrill of the Housing Authority. “An official letter will follow.”

The e-mail was dated March 3 and copied to housing authority CEO Richard Franco. The authority had applied for state tax credits through the Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Housing Authority attorney Robert Anderson said he asked officials to ensure they did an exhaustive search for records to comply with the Caller-Times request and that the failure to include the e-mail must have been an oversight.

“I will follow up on that,” Anderson said Thursday.

The Caller-Times, citing the Texas Public Information Act, asked the housing authority Aug. 26 for a copy of an environmental assessment of the town home site and external and internal communications regarding the assessment.

The Caller-Times asked for an assessment dated in March because records held by local advocacy group Citizens for Environmental Justice indicated that was the date of the assessment.

In response, the Housing Authority released two assessments of the planned town home site, dated November 2007 and December 2008. The December report showed groundwater and soil contamination above state screening levels.

The Housing Authority also released an assessment of nearby Leathers Place No. 1, where public housing already exists, showing no contamination. No March assessment was released. Anderson said the housing authority released all assessments that exist.

Housing Authority officials first said they wouldn’t release any communications regarding the assessments but did so Sept. 10 after the Caller-Times contacted Anderson. The authority then released seven e-mails from project manager Mike Linnane regarding D.N. Leathers.

One of those e-mails indicates the authority was interested in applying for the state’s Innocent Owner Program through the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. That program provides a certificate to property owners indicating that they did not cause contamination on their property. It can be used as a redevelopment tool or to add value to a contaminated property, according to the TCEQ.

As of Thursday, the authority had not applied to the innocent owner program, according to TCEQ records.

The site was contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. A refinery tank storage area formerly was on adjoining property.

Another e-mail provided by Linnane is a copy of the Caller-Times’ questions to the engineer who completed the second environmental assessment on the site. The engineer forwarded those questions to Linnane but later told the newspaper he would not be interviewed because he was not being paid to do so.

Franco and Linnane also would not answer questions about the project, instead releasing a two-sentence statement Sept. 9:

“The Board of Commissioners of the City of Corpus Christi Housing Authority at this juncture is considering what specific course of action to take on the D.N. Leathers II site. Until such time as a determination is made by the Board on said matter, there will not be any further statements.”

The next board meeting is Sept. 29.

The housing authority builds and administers federal public housing in Corpus Christi. It and similar agencies around the state operate under a Texas law that allows municipalities, counties or regions to set up housing authorities.