OJAI : Opinions Divided on Housing Plan

An affordable-housing complex planned for downtown Ojai was called both a danger to pedestrians and a necessity for the Ojai Valley by residents who addressed the City Council on Tuesday.

The project is proposed for a 1.9-acre site at 508 N. Montgomery St. on a street with a mixture of business and residential buildings. Neighbors have protested that the site is inappropriate.

During the fourth public hearing on the project, Orville Tucker said, “Surveys and statistics don’t begin to tell about the problems of traffic congestion on North Montgomery.”

With the kindergarten nearby, people on their way to work are not likely to see the children walking in the road where there are no sidewalks, said Michael Morris, an Ojai resident who opposes the housing project.

“It definitely poses a danger to an already overly traveled street,” he said.

But Katie Fellows, an Ojai resident and president of the League of Women Voters in Ventura County, countered that the community has overriding needs for low-cost housing.

“This project increases the supply of low-income housing without undue jeopardy to the environmental balance or health and safety of the community,” she said.

The project developer, Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. of Saticoy, plans to construct 21 two- and three-bedroom units in one single-story building and two two-story buildings.

The project site is in a medium-density residential zone that permits up to 7.5 dwelling units per acre. The council would have to grant the developer a conditional use permit allowing zoning restrictions to be exceeded for about 10.5 units per acre. The project would cost about $2.5 million, about half of it state affordable-housing subsidies and the balance from private parties who would earn federal tax credits for their investment, said Karen Flock, Cabrillo project manager. The Ojai Redevelopment Agency is expected to contribute about $250,000.