Oxnard OKs Low-Income Apartments : Redevelopment: Despite concerns from neighbors, City Council backs the $5-million, 32-unit housing project.

With time running out to replace housing demolished by redevelopment, the Oxnard City Council has approved a $5-million low-income housing project in the downtown area over the objections of neighbors.

Approval of plans by the nonprofit Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. of Saticoy to build 32 low-income apartments marks the first time since 1976 that the county’s largest city has approved an apartment complex reserved exclusively for low-income residents.

The council’s unanimous decision Tuesday to approve the Villa Solimar apartments followed four hours of conflicting and often emotional testimony from opponents and affordable-housing advocates.

In the end, the council authorized Cabrillo to proceed with the project but added safeguards to minimize the effects on residents of the nearby Royal Palms Mobile Home Park.

“We don’t want to disrupt the lives of the neighbors, but we can’t address their concerns by simply not building the project,” Councilman Andres Herrera said. “We have an obligation to provide this kind of housing.”

The project will be built on land purchased from the city’s Redevelopment Agency. The city will also provide Cabrillo with more than $340,000 toward the cost of construction.

Under state redevelopment law, Oxnard has four years to replace the 77 units of mostly low-income housing that it removed from the downtown area as part of its redevelopment strategy. Redevelopment Director Richard Maggio said Tuesday that the city has until the end of next year to meet the requirement.

City officials previously said state law allows them to count the Villa Solimar project as 96 units of replacement housing because all 32 units will be three-bedroom apartments, which will rent for $600 to $700 a month. State law requires 20% of the city’s redevelopment funds to be spent on affordable housing.

But the decision to build the low-income project was anything but easy for the council, which was faced with vocal opposition from some Royal Palms residents and owners of the adjacent Regal Motel.

Residents of the park, separated by an alley from the 1.5-acre site at Driffill Boulevard and Donlon Avenue, said they feared potential noise and traffic congestion caused by Villa Solimar. Neighbors also expressed concern that children living at Villa Solimar would be in danger from traffic converging at Oxnard’s busy Five Points intersection a block away.

“You cannot regulate children,” Glen Serres said. “I don’t care how well they are supervised; they will be all over the place.”

Other Royal Palms residents muttered at the sound of crying children who had been brought to the council chambers by low-income residents supporting the project. “That’s what we’ll hear all day and night,” one audience member grumbled.

To address concerns over noise, Cabrillo officials agreed to install double-pane windows, replace balcony railings with solid walls and reduce the number of windows that can open.

Cabrillo officials also agreed to install security gates at the three entrances to Villa Solimar and equip the on-site manager with an around-the-clock pager to respond quickly to complaints.

Supporting the project at Tuesday’s hearing were affordable-housing advocates and low-income residents.

“This city is in desperate need of low-income housing,” said Eileen McCarthy, an attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance, a farm-worker support group.

McCarthy cited the city’s General Plan, which documents the need for 1,700 new low-income housing units in the current five-year period and calls for the construction of 850 such units. Of those, just 22 affordable units have been built in the past four years, city officials have conceded.

Barbara A. Journet, Cabrillo’s community representative, appealed to the council to reverse the city’s recent policy in support of higher-priced homes.

“Fifteen years ago, the city made a conscious decision to stop building affordable homes,” Journet said. “Now, we are asking you to make a conscious decision to support this project.”