Although she resided in a part of North Memphis afflicted with poverty and blight, Dorothy Ross loved her modest 67-year-old home on Bingham Street – so much so that she had a room added onto it a few years ago.

I just liked the neighborhood. I felt comfortable," she said.

Ross, 57, moved into the Bingham dwelling nearly 40 years ago and insists she didn't want to move.

But the Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division had other plans. Earlier this year, the utility notified Ross via certified mail that it intended to buy the home to make way for an expansion of its North Service Center. If she didn't agree, the letter from the MLGW property-management specialist said, the utility would have "no other choice but to refer this matter to our Legal Department."

Ross is among owners of some 130 properties in the Meagher/Tupelo neighborhood north of Jackson and east of Hollywood that are being acquired to provide parking areas and building sites for the expanded service center. With many homes already torn down, the project has left stretches of vacant land along streets such as Bingham, Dexter and Houck, which Google Earth images still show as lined with residences.

MLGW claimed in flyers placed in residents' doors that the expansion project would "reduce blight" in the impoverished, predominantly black neighborhood. But some residents complain it's had the exact opposite effect.

"Why are your trying to industrialize an area where people want to live?" asks Janice Mondie, 52, who lives on Dexter across the street from where several homes were bought and torn down by the utility. "This would never happen in a white, affluent area."

Mondie voiced those concerns in a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In a response letter, a HUD official said the department would investigate the complaint and strive to determine within 100 days if "there is reasonable cause to believe that an unfair/discriminatory housing practice has occurred."

With HUD investigating, MLGW President and CEO Jerry Collins said he's been advised not to discuss the matter. "Since it's become a legal issue, all I can tell you is, we're cooperating fully" with the federal review, he said.

Although Collins didn't provide details on the expansion project, MLGW confirmed earlier this year that it is gradually vacating its entire Central Shops complex totaling 11.5 acres and six departments on Beale. The utility will move those functions to the North Service Center.

State Sen. Lee Harris, D-Memphis, was among the elected officials who attended a meeting this summer involving residents and MLGW officials. He said he was concerned that residents felt pressured to sell their homes even though the utility had not launched eminent domain proceedings.

"The threat that was most worrisome to me was that MLGW was using heavy-handed tactics," said Harris, who recently announced he is running for Shelby County Mayor.

Ross, who has since moved to Frayser, said she felt pressured by the utility and, under the threat of being taken to court, eventually agreed to sell.

"They came to me with a contract...," she said. "I didn't want to move."

Harris said, as a result of the meeting, MLGW officials agreed not to use pressure tactics. Also, residents were advised that they didn't have to sell and that they could get legal representation.

But, by then, many owners already had relented and sold to the utility, Harris said.

"For a lot of these folks, this was a devastating sequence of events," he added.

Gordon Alexander, who heads the Midtown Action Coalition, said that in the expansion of the nearby utility service center, an economically disadvantaged neighborhood was taken advantage of.

"It's basically destroyed part of a neighborhood," he said.

The expansion of the service center into the neighborhood could negatively affect three schools in the area, Mondie said.

Mondie said MLGW could have used any of a number of large tracts of vacant land across the city to accommodate the uses needed at the service center. The Shelby County Land Bank, made up mostly of property obtained because of delinquent taxes, contains some 4,500 parcels. The neighborhood was chosen out of convenience, she said.

"They could've put that shop anywhere. There's vacant land all over Memphis," Mondie said.

Reach Tom Charlier at thomas.charlier@commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2572 and on Twitter at @thomasrcharlier.