Low-Income Housing Proposal Criticized : Ventura: Residents fear development will lead to more traffic and crime. If OKd, 23-acre site would have to be annexed.

A proposal to build 146 apartments and houses in the east Ventura area for poor people is drawing criticism from neighbors who worry that the influx of low-income residents will bring traffic and crime.

Saticoy-based Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. wants to construct 80 apartments and 66 single-family houses on a 23-acre lot just north of the Santa Paula Freeway and east of Saticoy Avenue. The area is just outside the city limits and would have to be annexed if the project is approved. The nonprofit company is the largest private builder of low-income housing in the county.

Residents near the proposed site say they are concerned that the project will decrease their property values. A developer who has an adjacent housing project said he is fearful a low-income housing project will hinder the sales of his residences.

“I consider this to be a nice and quiet neighborhood,” said Laura Caskey, who moved into the area a month ago from Houston. “I realize all people in low income are not bad people, but it could attract some drug activity and crime and tend to spill into the neighborhood.”

Ernest T. Mansi, the head of Oxnard-based KNM Development, said he will lobby city leaders to make the proposed low-income residences compatible with his development, still under construction next to the Cabrillo site. Mansi opposes the low-income apartments and said another apartment complex in the area already has vacancies.

“The apartments will be trouble,” Mansi said. “It will affect our project.”

Three few years ago, however, Mansi’s project, which is aimed at moderate-income families, was the target of the same type of criticism when he sought approval from the city for his 147-house development. City leaders allowed his project to go forward, saying Ventura does not have enough affordable housing.

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Cabrillo officials point out that they have built more than 650 low-income housing units in Ventura County since 1981 and say Ventura is lagging behind in the number of low-income housing units it is mandated by the state to build. The corporation is also asking for about $1.4 million in financial assistance from the city.

“As soon as people start hearing about low-income housing they start freaking,” project architect Nick Deitch said. “You know, everyone’s in favor of low-income housing, but not in their neighborhood.”

Deitch said Cabrillo officials are trying to target young professionals and blue-collar workers who have a hard time buying their first homes or who are struggling with high apartment rents.

“We’re not looking at poor people, people who don’t contribute to our society, people who are lazy,” Deitch said. “This is for the rookie police officer, the schoolteacher and middle management.”

Rodney Fernandez, executive director of Cabrillo Economic Development Corp., said the apartments will be marketed toward families with incomes ranging from $20,000 to $40,000, and the houses would be set aside for families with incomes ranging from $35,000 to $45,000.

“We are going to be working with community on planning this,” Fernandez said. “We are going to seek input from the neighborhood. This is their neighborhood, and we want to make sure they have a say-so in what gets built.”

Fernandez said the initial proposal is to include a five-acre park, child-care center and community center in the development. All that could change, based on what kind of suggestions neighbors come up with, Fernandez said.

Charles Hilley, a 40-year-old mortgage broker who has lived in the area for about seven years, said the success of the project will depend on whether Cabrillo carefully screens tenants.

“A lot of people have put sweat equity in their houses and I would hate to see that go downhill,” said Hilley, who repainted his house, bought a new roof and added landscaping. “It all depends on the kind of people who move in.”

Cabrillo officials gave a presentation to the City Council earlier this week, outlining their development and asking the council for $1.4 million in grants and loans during the next four years. Most of the $23-million project will be funded by private investors and federal funds, Cabrillo officials said.

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A majority of the council members said they are in favor of the project because the city needs more housing for the poor, but are not sure of contributing a lot of city tax dollars toward the development because they want to emphasize revitalizing Ventura’s downtown.

“The residents nearby are going to come unglued, and I’m reluctant to take money from the downtown,” Councilman Gary Tuttle said. “But there’s a need for this type of housing. It’s going to take a lot of political guts for the council to support it.”

The council is scheduled to discuss the development in the next few weeks, but will not vote on the proposed project until after environmental and engineering studies have been completed.

Fernandez said if the project is approved, he hopes the first low-income residents will be able to move into the neighborhood in late 1996.