One-Family Homes Fall to Boom in Apartments

Raymond and Vera Wells’ time-worn three-bedroom house on North Jackson Street in central Glendale has caught the eye of real estate agents with clients hungry for property zoned for multiple units but now occupied by single-family houses.

“They have tried and tried to get us to sell our house. They practically demand it,” said Vera Wells, 76. “But where are we going to move? What good is it to sell if we couldn’t afford to live anyplace else?”

Vera Wells only has to look out her window to see that many other neighbors in the same dilemma have decided otherwise. Across the street, workmen are putting the finishing touches on a small apartment house. Next door, the same developer is digging the foundation for an eight-unit building and behind the Wellses’ backyard are two recently occupied apartment buildings. Single-family homes once stood on all those lots.

“It’s real sickening to think about it,” Wells said of the changes in the neighborhood where she has lived for 33 years.

Pressure to Sell

With economic conditions much improved for the construction industry and builders wanting to beat the deadlines of imminent--and more restrictive--rezoning in Glendale, the pressure to sell has increased in recent months on owners of one-family houses in apartment zones.

“I have more developers than I know what to do with looking for property in Glendale,” said Bea Jue, a senior saleswoman at the Coldwell Banker realty firm. “There is a real surge of them wanting to come in and build on R-4 land,” which permits the highest residential density.

For the first three months of 1985, building permits have been issued for 612 apartment units in Glendale, a 423% jump from the same period last year, city records indicate.

With many of those units in buildings of not more than about 10 apartments, there has been a big backlog of city plan checks and building inspections. As a result, the council last month allocated $76,000 to pay overtime and to hire outside consultants.

‘A Real Zoo’

“It’s been a real zoo. I’ve been working 55 hours a week,” said Alexander Pyper, the city’s building superintendent, who supervises the permit process.

The increase in rental construction is also reflected in other parts of California, where lower interest rates and increased demand for rentals have caused multifamily housing construction to outpace single-family home building for the first time since 1973.

In addition, with the condominium market thought to be saturated, investment in rental housing is attractive again.

Glendale has its own factors adding to the trend, say officials, builders and real estate agents. First, office buildings along upper Brand Boulevard are beginning to be filled. New employees there are deciding that they would like to live close to their jobs but cannot afford to buy houses or condominiums.

Second, Glendale’s reputation as a relatively safe community with good schools is attracting many new immigrants, especially Central Americans and Armenians. In addition, builders like the fact that Glendale’s conservative City Council is unlikely to enact a rent control ordinance, even though the vacancy rate is less than 1%.

But most important, perhaps, builders are afraid of the much-discussed proposals to make zoning consistent with the city’s more restrictive general plan. Developers want to pour concrete before any new rules are approved, which is expected within a few months.

Builders ‘in a Panic’

“Once they heard about the rezoning, builders ran for their lives and secured permits. They were really in a panic,” said Mark Grigorian, a structural engineer who is doing consulting work on about 25 apartment projects in town and is building his own 18-unit complex on East Harvard Street near Adams Street.

Joe Mandoky, president of the Glendale Board of Realtors, said: “A lot of people are concerned about the consistency plan. So the people who want to develop their property are developing it now. But, of course, they also don’t build unless they expect to make money. And there is a real demand for rental housing.”

Mandoky said there is some concern among builders that too many apartments will be built in the Glendale market this year. But he said he expects any glut to be temporary as increasing numbers of office workers move into the city.

Lower Densities Planned

In large areas of Glendale south of the Ventura Freeway, city planners are proposing that the allowable building densities be dropped so that 1,750 or 1,250 square feet of land, depending on the neighborhood, would be required for each apartment, compared to 750 square feet required now.

For example, Grigorian said his project would have to drop to 12 units from 18 if the proposed zoning changes were on the books. He said that would have made his project less feasible.

And citywide, even in areas near the financial and shopping district where planners want high densities maintained, the proposed zoning would require at least two enclosed parking spaces for every apartment. That, too, would add to costs.

Under current zoning, a builder must match each one-bedroom unit with 1.5 parking spaces, two-bedroom units with 1.75 spaces, and three-bedroom units with two spaces.

Interest Rates a Factor

Real estate agents say developers have been buying single-family houses in the multiple-unit zones of central and southern Glendale in the past few years and have been renting them as they waited for interest rates to drop.

Now some tenants are being evicted as construction begins and the builders are looking to buy adjacent properties. In most cases, they are willing to pay much more for properties than if those houses were in single-family zoning; the land is important, not the house.

That presents difficult decisions for homeowners, especially the many elderly people in Glendale who paid off their mortgages long ago. Should they hold out for a higher price? Could they adjust to or afford living someplace else? Should they risk being surrounded by apartments and possibly having the value of their small lot drop because developers prefer several contiguous lots?

“People still prefer the privacy of a single home on a lot. But as the density around them increases, that takes away from the the reason they like the single-family home,” said Howard Hooker, executive officer of the Glendale Board of Realtors. “That increases the pressure.”

Many Likely to Stay

Doris Black, an agent at Sterpa Associated Realty, said: “A lot of the older people who live in those little houses, and have for many years, are going to stay there until they can’t or until they die. They have such a pride of ownership.

“But the land value (in R-4 zones) can be much more than the structure and sometimes it doesn’t make economic sense.”

Interviews with residents show that they are well-aware of those pressures, especially in areas near the office towers where high-density zoning will be kept.

“Realtors call us all the time,” said June Hissey, who has lived in her North Louise Street house for 30 years. Even though most of her friends have sold out and moved from the neighborhood, and apartments have been built on one side of her house and across the street, she and her husband don’t want to sell.

They enjoy the convenience of being within walking distance of stores and churches and don’t mind living near apartment buildings because, she said, they realize that “multiple-family developments are really needed.”

May Have to Rethink

However, they are concerned, she said, that their neighbor on the other side might decide to sell. And that might force them to rethink their situation.

Another resident of North Louise, a 53-year-old man who asked not to be identified, said he bought his house six years ago as an investment. “I was pretty well aware that we could get bought out any time,” he said. He is waiting to take advantage of tax benefits that become available at age 55, he said.

“I have mixed emotions about the whole situation,” he said. “On the one hand, I really hate the idea of losing all of our past, all of these old houses. We’ll miss some of these things.

“But on the other hand, this area can’t be loaded with single-family homes anymore. The world is changing and we have to change with it, no matter how old we are.”