Local News in Brief : Deadline Set for Housing Project

Los Angeles officials have given a developer undertaking the city’s largest housing-rehabilitation project three weeks to eliminate slum-like conditions remaining in as many as a third of the project’s 453 apartments.

If work on the former Bryant-Vanalden housing project in Northridge is not completed by April 3, the city will finish the work at the developer’s expense.

The ultimatum was contained in a letter accompanying a city audit of the $25-million project. The report, by the city Community Development Department, indicated that while some of the poor Latino residents who live in the project have benefited from the redevelopment, others continue to live in substandard, unsafe housing.

The repairs would cost $480,000, the audit said. It also identified $853,878 in “unwarranted” cost overruns by the developer, Devinder (Dave) Vadehra. City officials said that Vadehra will have to pay for those overruns, which they attributed to mismanagement.