Westlake Village : City to Review Plan for Senior Housing

Westlake Village officials will meet today to review a developer’s tentative plans for a 170-unit senior citizens housing project that would require an amendment to the general plan.

It would be the third time in the past year that Irvine-based Windstar Homes has met with city officials to discuss its concept for an apartment-style complex on about four acres on Lindero Canyon Road near Ridgeford Drive, said Planning Director Bob Theobald.

The project would require a general plan amendment, Theobald said, because the plan designates the site for four residential units, or as many as 75 units of senior housing.

Mayor Kenneth Rufener and Mayor Pro-tem Berniece Bennett, who make up the Land Use Committee, will discuss the matter at 9:30 a.m. at City Hall at 4373 Park Terrace Drive. Theobald said the developer, who has not filed a formal application, has met twice during the past year with city officials to discuss the plan.

The city, he said, in an unusual arrangement, inherited development rights for the site from the county when the city incorporated in 1981. The county, he said, obtained development rights to the property in the 1960s, in exchange for allowing a former owner of the property to store recreational vehicles on the site, which is near Triunfo Creek.

Although records are unclear, Theobald said he thinks the county was trying to prevent development because the area was in a flood plain. Over the years, he said, the property changed hands several times, and portions of it were filled in. Windstar’s project would be away from the flood plain, Theobald said.