A plan by Buehler Homes to build 125 rental homes on 140 parcels of tax delinquent land was approved Wednesday by the Shelby County Commission.

The 7-4 commission vote was at the end of a two and a half hour meeting with a lot of emotion and even more questions.

Developer Harold Buehler came with a crowd of supporters, including some who rent property from him now and some who will work on the new homes. But there were also some vocal opponents from the North Memphis neighborhoods where the homes will be built. Some were leaders of community development corporations in those areas.

“Some of the criticism is in good faith,” Buehler said after the vote. “Some of it is outright lies.”

With the approval, Buehler will begin preparing title papers and surveying the lots as the first steps toward beginning construction.

Crossways with Brooks

Buehler’s political effort on the project included an endorsement of his other properties by former Memphis Grizzlies and University of Memphis basketball player Antonio Burks. And Tuesday, some residents of Buehler homes set up a picket line outside the gates of South Bluffs, where Commissioner Henri Brooks lives.

Brooks has been a vocal opponent of the proposal. Political operative David Upton, who has been working with Buehler for commission approval, accused Brooks of hypocrisy for renting in the affluent gated community after a bankruptcy and foreclosure on her South Memphis home “while blocking the building of brand-new homes in blighted areas in need of housing.”

Brooks reacted strongly at the start of Wednesday’s meeting.

“When a group of individuals can come to my home and stand around my home where I have grandchildren and a child, I am very concerned. I’m concerned that my home address was released by someone close to Buehler,” she said. “He’s trying to intimidate the advocate for the people. … You don’t intimidate me.”

Brooks also called Buehler “a predator – a parasite on the poor.”

Upton said the protest was peaceful and legitimate and was outside the gates of South Bluffs, with Brooks’ street address inside the development never given out. The address is public record.

Brooks also clashed with County Commission chairwoman Joyce Avery as Avery tried to put commissioners as well as the audience on time limits for speaking.

Last week, Brooks had raised questions about the lack of public notice of the transfer of the lots under the Shelby County Homestead Act. Shelby County attorney Brian Kuhn said there had never been public notice for the homestead transfers, prompting the delay to today’s meeting.

Kuhn told commissioners Wednesday that a notice in The Commercial Appeal seemed to suffice, although more attention might be paid in the future to the details of such property transfers.