COUNTYWIDE FOCUS : OXNARD : Planners Approve Low-Income Housing

Oxnard planning commissioners have given their approval to the city’s first low-income apartment project aimed at replacing housing the city has removed from the downtown redevelopment area.

In unanimously approving the 32-unit project known as Villa Solimar, the commission overrode objections from local businesses and residents of an adjacent mobile home park.

“To seek affordable housing is not only a good thing, but the right thing to do,” said Commissioner Art Lopez in backing the 66,000-square-foot apartment project.

Under state law, cities are required to replace housing removed from redevelopment areas within four years. Time is running out for Oxnard to replace the 80 mostly low-income housing units the city has demolished to make way for redevelopment projects, said Ernie Whitaker, a program manager for the city’s Housing Authority.

Whitaker said the project would qualify as 96 units of replacement housing under state housing rules, since all of the apartments have three bedrooms.

Money to purchase the 1.5-acre site was provided by the Oxnard Redevelopment Agency, which must spend 20% of its revenues on affordable housing, according to state law.

Monthly rent will range from $600 to $700, depending on the income of the families that qualify to move into the units. The Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. will oversee construction and management of the apartment complex.

The neighbors who protested said they feared that the low-income project would be too crowded and noisy and said the presence of liquor stores and high crime in the downtown area made the Donlon Avenue site a bad choice.

The project “is a great idea, we just need a better place to put it,” said Charmin Cantor, whose family owns a nearby motel.