Elderly Housing Sways Officials; Condo Plan OKd

After a heated two-hour hearing, the Los Angeles Planning Commission Thursday reluctantly approved plans for a 168-unit apartment complex--100 condominiums and 68 apartments for low- and moderate-income senior citizens--in the Barton Hill area of San Pedro.

Although all four commissioners agreed with opponents who do not like the location of the project, three of the four voted in favor, saying they felt compelled to do so because it will help ease a shortage of housing for senior citizens.

Yet the commissioners had such mixed feelings that when Chairman William Luddy asked for a motion to approve the project, no one stepped forward. Finally, saying there was no other way to get on with the day’s business, Luddy temporarily relinquished the chair to make the motion himself.

“This is a close judgment call,” Luddy said to the crowd of dozens who packed the hearing room at the Los Angeles Harbor Department. His motion was seconded by commissioner Theodore Stein, who said: “This is a very reluctant second.”

The proposed development, named Bridgeview, would be built along Beacon Street, from O’Farrell Street north to where Harbor Boulevard intersects with the ramp that leads to the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Developers also propose a 7,000-square-foot senior citizens center for the site.

Backers say Bridgeview will fill a desperate need by providing affordable housing for senior citizens at a time when the wait to move into such apartments can be as long as five years.

“Anyone who lives in San Pedro knows of the lack of housing we have,” said resident Grayce Beacom, who told commissioners that she lives in a development similar to the one proposed. “What the seniors need is a roof over their heads.”

But opponents say the project, which will be built in a heavily trafficked area on land originally zoned for manufacturing, will isolate senior citizens in a part of town that is too far from churches, parks and San Pedro’s business district. And with proposed rents of $460 a month, they say the housing is not particularly affordable anyway.

“These people were saying, ‘These poor seniors, they’re living out in the streets.’ ” said Howard Uller, director of Toberman Settlement House, a social service agency in Barton Hill. “Well, this isn’t going to help the seniors who live out in the streets. They can’t afford to move here.”

Uller and others have charged that the developers, Michael and George Tumanjan of Torrance, are taking advantage of senior citizens to build “yuppie condos.” Dee Petty, who heads the Barton Hill Neighborhood Coalition and works at Toberman, told commissioners: “You’re trying to skirt these 100 condominiums in on the backs of senior citizens.”

But in an interview after the commission’s vote, Douglas Ring, a lawyer for the developers, said linking market-price condominiums with below-market apartments is the only way private developers can build affordable housing. “You can’t build subsidized housing without something to subsidize it,” he said.

Commissioners attached several conditions to the approval. The developers, who had proposed offering a shuttle service for the senior citizens, will be required to operate at least two vans.

Commissioners also required that the senior citizen units be maintained at below-market rates permanently, rather than for 30 years as the developers proposed. And commissioners turned down a request from the developers to eliminate guest parking.

1st Proposal Was Larger

Bridgeview was initially proposed as a 381-unit project, but the Planning Commission rejected that plan in September. In November the developers appealed to the City Council, which approved the scaled-down version of the project and sent it back to the Planning Commission for review.

Thursday’s decision, however, is not the final step. The City Council must vote on the project, and it could overturn the conditions set by the Planning Commission.

In other matters related to development in the harbor area, the commission on Thursday delayed action on the proposed Wilmington-Harbor City Community Plan and approved an interim control ordinance that will curb residential development along Pacific Avenue in San Pedro.

The interim control ordinance is designed to encourage commercial uses on Pacific Avenue, once the community’s main commercial thoroughfare.

It requires developers to landscape their buildings and adhere to stricter setbacks.