Council Agrees to Aid Blighted Complex

After a tense meeting filled with verbal sniping and shouting, city officials agreed to subsidize an ambitious project to clean up a blighted apartment complex.

City Council members voted 4 to 1 Thursday to contribute $2 million of federal and municipal housing funds to a $9-million effort to rehabilitate the Parklane Garden Apartments on North Highland Street.

In exchange, the project’s private investors agreed to rent 80 of the 256 apartments to low-income tenants for 55 years.

City housing officials had been scrambling for days to produce a final agreement between the city and the investors, headed by developer Barry Cottle of Tustin. A deal had been struck in March to fund the apartment project, but the investors, and the agreement, have since changed.

Although the city originally would have been a partner in the plan to refurbish all 256 of the apartments, the agreement was rewritten to separate the project into two pieces. City officials are now excluded from having any say over what happens to the 176 units not tied to the agreement on affordable rents.

Local real estate managers joined Councilman Dan Slater, who is also a real estate broker, in questioning whether the city is getting enough for its money.

They argued that the city would lack crucial oversight power as the project moved forward. They also said they were skeptical about investor promises that the city would not be saddled with costs for relocating the current tenants.

“I still feel that if we vote for this we are forfeiting the control we could have had over all 256 units,” said Slater, who cast the dissenting vote against the project.

But other council members expressed confidence in the project.

“In very few areas do we have 100% guarantee of anything,” said Councilman Mike Spurgeon. “This is the right thing to do.”