Condominium Issue Divides Area Residents : Housing: Conversion proposal is touted as a chance for home ownership, but it’s criticized as a giveaway to developers.

A proposal to allow more Marina del Rey apartments to be converted to condominiums sharply divided area residents Wednesday, with some endorsing the idea as a chance for home ownership while others decried it as a massive giveaway of public land to developers.

In years past, the very mention of condominium conversion has stirred passions in the marina, and this public hearing was no different.

Current county policy prohibits the conversion to condominiums of all the low-rise units that constitute the vast majority of apartments at the county-owned marina. The only exceptions are two high-rise concrete-and-steel complexes.

But under pressure from the County Board of Supervisors and marina developers, who operate their apartment buildings on long-term leases with the county, the ban on condominiums is being re-examined.

Advocates of condo conversion, including marina developers, praise the idea as a means to boost county revenues and keep the marina competitive with newer developments planned nearby.

In a statement, marina leaseholder Jerry Epstein, operator of the Del Rey Shores apartments, said it makes no sense for the county to prohibit condo conversion. Failure to do so, he said, could leave the marina at a serious competitive disadvantage compared to the Playa Vista and Channel Gateway projects planned for the surrounding area.

Several residents of Epstein’s complex supported the move and expressed a desire to buy their apartment units. Marina resident Alvin Apfelberg also backed the idea. He said condominiums preserve housing, improve neighborhoods and give tenants an ability to own a home.

But they were outnumbered by opponents, who warned that conversions would inevitably displace renters, provide windfall profits to developers and only minor short-term gain to county coffers.

“Condo conversion is a giveaway to developers, kind of like giving Elysian Park to the Dodgers,” protested Iylene Weiss of Venice. She said allowing apartments to be sold as condominiums is not in the long-term interest of the county or its residents.

Weiss said her mother, who lives in the marina, and many other residents could not afford to buy their units if they were converted. “They should not be denied the opportunity to live in the marina because they can’t buy their way in,” she said.

So far, only one complex--the Marina City Club--has been converted from apartments to condominiums. Of the 600 units in the circular high-rise towers, 534 have sold at a total price of $161.6 million. The county has received $14.8 million. Purchasers buy a leasehold interest and do not own the underlying land.

Marina City Club condo owner Naomi Jacobs harshly criticized the county for having allowed the conversion in the first place. “I am living in the middle of a disaster,” she said.

Jacobs painted a picture of a troubled complex, with deteriorating services, bad management and an inability of owners to obtain financing because the units are on leased land. She warned against allowing any more conversions.

“You have a public trust,” she told county officials. “This is public property. This is not private property.”

That sentiment was echoed by John Rizzo, president of the Marina Tenants Assn., a longtime critic of county administration of the marina.

Rizzo charged that the hearing was designed to “get the ball rolling” so county supervisors can change the condo conversion policy. “It’s all just a cover-up to give a handful of lessees hundreds of millions of dollars at the expense of the county,” he said.

In approving the Marina City Club conversion, Rizzo said county officials gave away $100 million in equity in public land and got $14 million in return.

“What did the tenants get?” he said. “Most of them got booted out.”

Rizzo and several other speakers demanded that an audit be conducted of the Marina City Club project and the county finances in the marina.

Officers of two condominium associations located just outside the marina also objected to allowing more condominiums. Terry Conner of the Villa Marina Council said the condo conversion proposal is another chapter in the marina’s rich tradition of “catering to special-interest groups.”

Herbert Strickstein, a member of the county Small Craft Harbor Commission, which advises the supervisors on marina issues, was the first to testify against any change in the present policy.