City Officials Break Ground for Controversial Housing Complex

City officials and community leaders broke ground Thursday for a controversial $15-million development project that will be constructed at 81st Street and Vermont Avenue in South-Central Los Angeles.

The development is funded by Wells Fargo Bank and federal subsidies, officials said.

The Vermont Village Plaza, which will include office space, retail stores and 36 townhouses, was the subject of a heated round of debates late last year that pitted the City Council against Mayor Richard Riordan and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles).

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the development plan, backed the project, but Riordan and Waters fought the housing component; they contended that the neighborhood did not need another affordable housing project.

The townhouses were designed to provide affordable housing for first-time home buyers, according to Ridley-Thomas’ office.

Riordan vetoed the council’s decision to approve the project, but the council later overrode his veto.

The 76,000-square-foot project includes the renovation of the Pepperdine College Tower, a 1930s Art Deco-style building from Pepperdine’s old Los Angeles campus that has been used primarily for storage for the last 15 years, officials said.

Construction and renovation is expected to be completed by December 1997.