Jauhar Abraham, a Congress Heights native, said he’s heard what people around him think of the District’s plans for a sports arena in Congress Heights, and it’s not good.

“There’s a lot of unrest in the community,” he told District officials at a testy meeting on Tuesday night. “I’m hearing a lot everywhere: barbershops, restaurants. And as I’m looking at the committee representatives, I really don’t see anybody who represents any interest of mine or the people that I serve in my community.”

Abraham, the founder of the now-defunct anti-crime group Peaceoholics, was referring to committees that the city set up to bring in community voices. Events DC, the city’s entertainment management arm funded by hotel and food and beverage taxes, led the evening meeting. The idea was to update the community on plans for a 4,200-seat arena, which will be the practice center for the Washington Wizards and the home of the Washington Mystics.

The city bills the project as “more than basketball”—an opportunity to spur development in the neighborhood, and pull in local contractors and create jobs. After winning final design approval to build on the historic St. Elizabeths campus, construction is set to begin next month on the 118,000-square foot, $65 million facility, most of which will be borne by taxpayers rather than Monumental Sports & Entertainment.

There was an elephant in the room. Halfway through the meeting Bob Matthew, a local resident of 46 years, brought it up: gentrification.

Matthew told officials and about 40 residents, at the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center at St. Elizabeths, that he’s worried about the future of residents living adjacent to the campus. “We’re nervous about some things,” he said, later adding: “Lord protect us from gentrification.”

Half a dozen residents who spoke during the two-hour meeting echoed his worries of displacement, even if they said they wanted to still see development. Discussion occasionally turned toward a 252-unit affordable housing project that’s separate from the sports arena but will be built at St. Elizabeths. For many, how the District delivers on affordable housing—and permanent jobs—will be a measure of how closely the city is listening to the area’s concerns.

Sharece Crawford, member of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C, got in heated exchanges with Greg O’Dell, president of Events DC, over a community benefits package that was negotiated between the city, developers, and community members. The agreement in part holds that Events DC will fund $40,000 per year for scholarships and internships and $50,000 annually for community events over 19 years. But Crawford said she only received the draft yesterday and, along with other commissioners, wanted more time to revisit the process.

“What my constituents need is a seat at the table,” she said.

O’Dell pushed back on complaints about process. Early in the meeting, he said that “we did the best we could” reaching out to the community, holding several meetings and establishing committees to reach the community benefits package. “We thought we had a great representation,” he said, while adding that he’s welcome to hearing from more residents.

Philip Pannell, a supporter of the project, said that some of this year’s new Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners complaining about the process being rushed didn’t involve themselves at previous community meetings. “I didn’t see them at the meetings,” said Pannell, former president of the Congress Heights Community Association. “It also speaks to their level of community involvement before being elected.”

Construction will be headed by developers Gilbane Building Co. and Smoot Construction, and the team is on target to award at least 50 percent of contracts to District-based small businesses, also known as CBEs. The arena is expected to be completed by 2018.

For Mayor Muriel Bowser, the project aims spark development in a corner of the city east of the Anacostia River that hasn’t seen any. The facility will be owned by the city, and Events DC projects “$90 million economic impact over 20 years” for the area. For the residents there, jobs and housing were the biggest concerns Tuesday night.

“We’re in an interesting spot,” said Markus Bathcelor, the Ward 8 representative on the State School Board of Education. There are “serious concerns” still left with the project and its long term impact, he said. But time is flying fast.

“We’re at a community meeting now, and less than a week later, we’re going to have a groundbreaking.”