Completion of First Phase of South Park Housing Gains Board Approval

The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board on Monday gave the go-ahead for completion of the first phase of residential development in downtown’s South Park, a major new middle-class community planned for the area south of the financial district.

However, the board balked at a staff recommendation that it reaffirm the agency’s entire, long-range residential development scheme for the area, throwing open the question of how and where the city should concentrate efforts to build thousands of additional homes.

“We want housing but not at any price,” said Board Chairman Jim Wood.

The board announced plans to hire the Washington-based Urban Land Institute to critique the agency’s current strategy for South Park development. The report is expected to be completed in about two months.

By the year 2000, South Park, which is to be the largest new residential community in the Central City, is supposed to include 6,000 housing units, up to 15,000 residents, children’s centers, a park, markets, boutiques and pedestrian promenades. However, plans for it have been criticized recently by some large downtown landowners, who say that residential development adjacent to the booming business district is impractical.

They note that the first 200-unit high-rise condominium in the area, The Skyline, has sold slowly, and argue that commercial development of their land makes more sense because of soaring land costs and little demonstrated market for downtown housing,

But residents who have already bought condominiums in The Skyline, as well as shopping mall developers who have a financial stake in getting more residents into the area quickly, want city officials to press ahead with planned housing.

At the direction of Mayor Tom Bradley, the redevelopment agency board has been re-evaluating its South Park plan. A variety of options have been suggested, including moving the focus of residential development farther south, where land is less expensive, or applying zoning restrictions to reduce the density of allowable commercial development.

Large landowners, including Transamerica Occidental Life Insurance Co., have voiced strong concerns about any plan that would restrict use of their land.

On Monday, several board members expressed general support for developing homes in the South Park area.

They agreed to proceed with about 600 additional units near The Skyline, at 9th and Flower streets, where the city already has assembled several large parcels. The board also agreed to proceed with construction of three-acre Olympic Park on Hope Street and to explore increasing zoning controls on the area’s land.

But the board left open the question of what it will do beyond the first phase. “We want to look at all of the options,” said board member Dollie Chapman, who added that current development plans for the area “perhaps aren’t realistic.”

Board member Chris Stewart, who is also director of the Central City Assn., a group of prominent downtown businesses, said the agency cannot afford to develop thousands of additional housing units under existing conditions. He also said it is difficult to justify using $60,000 per unit or more in public funds to subsidize housing units for the middle class. “We don’t want to use all of our agency money for that,” he said.