SHERMAN OAKS : Loan Approved for Senior Housing

Over the protests of nearby homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a $2.4-million loan to a planned senior housing project on the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Woodman Avenue.

The $8-million mixed-use project includes 84 apartment units and about 3,000 square feet of retail space. The city loan will be used for land acquisition and site preparation.

In late July, Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky struck a tentative deal--aspects of which still need to be approved by the City Council--with developer Oved Ovadia, under which the city would grant him the loan, as well as an exemption from the height and density limits outlined in the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan.

In return, Ovadia agreed to drop a $10-million lawsuit challenging the Specific Plan. The rest of the project is to be paid for by Ovadia and through a combination of tax credits and bond issues.

Yaroslavsky hailed the council’s action as a step in the right direction toward removing a blighted block of buildings and replacing them with something positive.

“This puts an end to what is a long saga on a block on Ventura Boulevard which has been a nuisance and a living hell for people who live and work there,” Yaroslavsky said. “I hope the property owners move quickly to begin construction of this project. It’s a very good compromise.”

But some homeowners were upset by the decision.

“It was very upsetting. We’re outraged,” said Rose Elmassian, a co-chairwoman of the Woodman/Ventura Committee of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., the chief opponent of the project.

The homeowners are concerned that exempting the project from height and density regulations will undermine the Specific Plan. The homeowners say the city has not given them adequate time to review environmental and traffic documents related to the project, and that an environmental study indicates that soil at the project site is contaminated by pollutants, gas and oil leaks.

Yaroslavsky conceded that the project does not conform to the Specific Plan, but said the exception was necessary to settle the lawsuit, which had put the entire Specific Plan in jeopardy.

Rescalvo said the city has responded to homeowners’ request for documents in a timely manner and even extended the public comment period in response to their concerns. The aide said that as far as she knows, the site is not contaminated.