Council Debates Bond to Help Developer Purchase Pavilion Apartments : Financing: The proposal by R&B; Realty Group also would modernize the facility along with two other aging complexes.

Margie Crawford, who says she has lived with bad television reception for 11 years, showed up at Tuesday night’s Thousand Oaks City Council meeting confident that her problems would soon be cleared up.

The council debated late into the evening whether to approve a $66.7-million bond issue to help a private developer buy the building she lives in, the Pavilion apartments, and to modernize it along with two other aging complexes in the city.

In return for the city approving tax-exempt bonds, R&B; Realty Group of Los Angeles has offered to pay the city $750,000 up front, referred to in city documents as a financing fee, to support future affordable housing projects. That amount could be used, for example, to acquire three acres of land for new, affordable housing or to lower development costs on 50 rental units by about $17,000 per unit, according to a report from the Finance Advisory Committee.

The Pavilion and nearby Biltmore apartment complex, both built in the 1960s, would receive new roofs, redecorated clubhouses, new paint and landscaping and repairs to their parking lots. The Biltmore, a 142-unit complex at 550 Laurie Lane, would receive up to $2.3 million in repairs. The Pavilion, a 167-unit complex at 555 Laurie Lane, would receive about $2.7 million in refurbishment.

A third housing complex, the 495-unit Oakview Apartments at 613 Hampshire Blvd., would receive between $4 million and $5 million in repairs. Apartments at each complex would be upgraded with new appliances, countertops, bathroom fixtures and other items--include wiring for cable TV.

Those changes are welcome, said Crawford, who brought a petition signed by 88 others living in the apartments.

“The reception is so bad that when we have high winds we can’t even watch any of the basic channels,” she said, adding that neighbors are also concerned about lax security in complex’s common areas.

As planned, R&B; would convert 20% of the 804 units in the Oakview, Biltmore and Pavilion apartments to very low-income housing--a state and federal requirement for the proposed bond issue. That means that 162 of the units would go to households earning 50% or less of the county’s median income. For a family of four, that would be an annual income of no more than $28,000.

Low-income residents already living in the buildings would have first choice of these units. For some residents, rents could drop by as much as $350 a month for a two-bedroom unit in the Oakview Apartments that now rent for nearly $1,000.

But though the large cash gift would allow the city to support new community development programs, some council members said the city should not be acting as a bank for private developers.

“I don’t think the city should be a bank for private enterprise,” Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said before the public hearing. “The state is suffering because of reduced revenues and for us to give tax-exempt municipal bonds to a private developer is questionable.”

The city has once before made use of such bonds. In 1992, it issued $9 million in bonds for a nonprofit group called Many Mansions to renovate Shadow Hills, an overcrowded apartment complex in dire need of rehabilitation, according to city reports.

R&B; has proposed to include in its plans this local group, which often works with the city to secure and manage affordable housing. Many Mansions will help screen applicants for the low-income apartments and monitor that R&B; complies with state and federal government standards for low-income occupancy. It will also provide referrals to social services for low-income residents.

Nearly 10% of the residents of the three apartment complexes are senior citizens, whose rent-controlled units have been gradually adjusted to market rates. They will directly benefit from the opening of low-income units, said Chris Cheatham, director of investments for R&B; Realty Group.

Cheatham said that no residents would be displaced from their apartments for more than three or four days during the refurbishing.

The bonds would still have to be approved in October by the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, which determines which private companies will be approved to receive tax-exempt municipal financing. Billions of dollars in California tax-exempt bonds are available each year through local government to provide money for housing, industrial development and pollution control, according to Olav Hassel, the city’s housing services manager.

State and federal law requires that recipients of these bonds allocate 20% of the housing to low-income units and use at least 10% of the bond money for refurbishment. R&B; said it would use an average of 15% of its bond financing for renovations at the three apartment complexes.