Compton OKs Once-Rejected Housing Tract

The City Council unanimously overturned a Planning Commission recommendation this week and approved what will be the second-largest single-family housing development built in the city in at least 15 years.

The 142 detached homes will be built on the 14.2-acre site of the old Compton Drive-in Theater on Rosecrans Avenue between Pannes and Thorson avenues. Located in the city’s northeast corner, the new homes will sell at prices ranging from $140,000 to $180,000 each.

Planning commissioners rejected the development, saying it required too many modifications of the city’s existing development code. Lot sizes are to be 3,040 square feet, with Compton normally requiring minimum lot sizes of 5,000 square feet.

The private streets in the gated community known as East Gateway will be only 36 feet wide, with the city usually requiring streets to be 54 feet wide.

The development is being built by a partnership that includes Homes by Polygon in Laguna Hills and Gerald Robinson of the Robinson and Settles development firm.

Sunny Cove, located in the center of the city, was the last large housing tract built in Compton. It had more than 200 homes. The first of its three phases was begun about four years ago and the final phase sold out last year.