Loans Approved for Apartments’ Repair

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved nearly $2.6 million worth of loans to help rebuild two San Fernando Valley apartment buildings that were heavily damaged in the Northridge earthquake.

One loan of $1.7 million will go to JJJ Enterprises California Limited Partnership to fix up a building at 6805 Louise Ave. in Reseda.

The other, for $985,000, will help Hazel Lindgren repair her apartment complex at 5407 Colfax Ave. in Valley Village.

“I’m very happy,” Lindgren said. “I’m overwhelmed that I got the money to start fixing the damage.”

By Tuesday, the first anniversary of the earthquake, city officials predict they will have lent property owners and investors as much as $93 million in zero- and low-interest rehabilitation loans.

Funding for the $310-million program comes from the federal government.

Friday’s loan provided the first ray of hope for Lindgren in a long time. The Jan. 17 earthquake caused the walls of her building to crack, the windows to break and the patio to sag.

Although the building was green-tagged, 50 of its 108 units now stand vacant.

City Councilwoman Laura Chick said she was glad that the 72-unit complex on Louise Avenue, which is in her district and was red-tagged, received funding to do repairs.

“This has been one of the properties that we were especially concerned about because it’s been such a blight on the surrounding neighborhood,” Chick said.

“We are looking forward to a quick rebuilding so that we can have those units back on the marketplace and so a source of further blight and potential crime will be removed.”

Although both loans were approved without comment, another proposed loan--to the owner of a Venice building--was more controversial. The Venice loan sparked a debate among council members over whether it is appropriate to approve loans for green-tagged buildings at a time when it is unclear whether the program will have enough funds to cover more seriously damaged structures.

The council eventually voted to approve the Venice loan.

Councilman Richard Alarcon said that his primary purpose in raising the issue was to “have this discussion to broaden our thinking on what projects we approve. . . . I think the Housing Department can provide a rationale as to why earthquake funds should be used on green- or no-tagged buildings.”