WESTERLY — Several of the town’s affordable housing advocates are saying “no” to a plan to construct 17 condominiums priced for low-to-moderate income residents in the North End.

Called Pleasant Street Court, the comprehensive permit proposal went before the Planning Board earlier this week. Members are expected to vote next month.

Peter Sacco, of Sacco Enterprises Inc., plans to rehabilitate two existing buildings, construct 13 new units and put in 34 parking spaces at 9 and 13 Pleasant St.

Two units would be priced at market rate, four would be priced at 80 percent of the area median income and the remainder would sell for either 100 or 120 percent of the area median income, according to project attorney Margaret Hogan.

Attorney Charles Soloveitzik, whose family owns 13 Pleasant St., said he does not want to leave a legacy of blight.

“We see an opportunity to take care of that issue,” he said, adding they aim to put in owner-occupied condominiums.

“I don’t think it’s a bad project just because many of the neighbors are worried about it,” he told the board Tuesday.

Concerned neighbors included Pleasant Street Baptist Church Pastor Joshua A. McClure, a North End Crime Watch board member, who pointed to the project’s density as too great. He favors rehabilitating existing structures and single-family homes in the North End.

“I think in fairness to the people, these 17 units should not be permitted to be built on 2 acres of land,” he said, drawing applause from other attendees.

McClure came to Westerly in the early 1980s with a vision that included providing housing for community residents. The North End Crime Watch has in the past 14 years helped relieve the neighborhood’s drug and absentee landlord problems and rehab some homes.

“There’s a difference in the spirit of the people in the North End,” he said.

Adrian Pelchat, chairman of the North End Crime Watch and a member of the Affordable Housing Plan Committee, applauded Sacco’s effort to construct affordable units, but agreed with McClure.

 “We’re making the North End a place to be proud [of] again,” he said. A ratio of six units per acre would be consistent with the neighborhood’s “flavor,” he said.

Pleasant Street abutter Dave Panciera said too much effort had been made in the neighborhood to allow a dense development.

“This smacks of 1950’s housing projects and, as a resident of the North End, I greatly resent the notion … that the North End is a great place to dump a number of affordable houses,” he said.

Four other neighbors — including some from the Maples condominiums at the intersection of High and Pleasant streets — spoke against the plan for traffic and overcrowding reasons.

Planning Board member Patricia Douglas, head of the town’s Affordable Housing Plan Committee, said the town’s plan calls for units priced for those earning 80 percent of the area median income.

“That is the need. That is the breakdown of the income of Westerly. So that should be the majority, not the minority of units,” Douglas said.

Sacco indicated he could deviate from the prices approved by monitoring agent Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation.

“There is nothing to stop me ... from offering eight or 10 of those units at 80 percent as opposed to what’s approved,” he said.

Planning Board member Robert Chiaradio said an “inordinate” number of multi-family houses are already in the North End.

“I’m very concerned about ramming more multi-family units into an area that already has too many,” he said.

Board member Thomas Toscano, a North End native, agreed such a project “deteriorates” the neighborhood.

“I’m so sick and tired of the North End being dropped on by everybody in town,” he said, adding this plan would not be entertained farther south.

“You don’t care,” he added. “Because if you cared [about the neighborhood], you wouldn’t come here with a project like this.”

Toscano pointed to the state law governing comprehensive permits as a “bad law” that does not consider the surrounding area and shape of the property.

He described the narrow Pleasant Street lots as “two bowling lanes” in an already overcrowded part of town.

“To heck with the law if the law is bad,” Toscano said. “When the law bumps up against common sense, common sense has to win.”

Toscano later urged fellow board members to proceed cautiously: “There are other developers looking over our shoulder. And if we slide this one by without any thought we’ll be inundated [with comprehensive permit applications].”

Under the state’s Low and Moderate Income Housing Act, an applicant only has to go before the Planning Board for a comprehensive permit. At least 25 percent of the units must be priced at low or moderate-income rates.

To promote the construction of affordable units in various parts of town, the ordinance provides a density bonus — 3 units in the case of the Pleasant Street Court project.

Attorney Hogan said Tuesday’s hearing was not the appropriate place to argue this law’s merits. She added it was “disturbing” to hear that investing money into a site would bring down a neighborhood.

Land use planner Joseph Lombardo, a former Westerly, Hopkinton and Richmond planner, told board members the project would move the town closer to its state-mandated affordable housing goals. He found the project in line with town zoning, the comprehensive plan and the neighborhood.

And board member Kenneth Sorensen said a decision should be based on the facts presented and expert testimony to avoid treading on a landowner’s right to develop.

The project initially went before the board with 32 affordable units planned. In August 2007, the plan was scaled back to 28 affordable units.

“So along the way, there have been various iterations of this project, each time reducing the density,” Hogan said.