Council Allocates $900,000 for Ventura Avenue Project

In a move west side residents embraced with gusto, the City Council allocated $900,000 to a private developer to convert the crumbling Casa de Anza apartments on Ventura Avenue into commercial space and affordable rental units.

“Let’s take a bite out of blight on the Avenue,” said Councilman Jim Friedman, who pushed long and hard for the Casa de Anza project. “If we have the opportunity to change it from a symbol of squalor to the jewel of the Avenue, the way it was in the 1920s and ‘30s, then let’s show our commitment to the Westside Community Council and their vision.”

On Monday night, the City Council approved $1.3 million in federal funds for low-income housing in different areas of the city. About $210,629 is still available and must eventually go to a local housing nonprofit organization.

Exon Management’s Casa de Anza project received $720,000 in federal funds and $180,000 in matching funds from the city--by far the largest of four low-income housing projects the city approved.

The three-story structure is a focal point on Ventura Avenue. For years it has remained boarded up as the city and its owners debated what to do with it.

While Exon Management bargained with the owners, and the city argued whether to grant federal housing funds to restore the property, vandalism and two fires ate away at the already dilapidated building.

The additional damage brought the cost of the property down, but increased the costs of rehabilitation--triggering fears among council members that the project would become a money pit.

West side residents solidly backed the proposal. Nine of them stood silently to show their support as Lauri Flack, the head of the Westside Community Council, said the deteriorating Casa de Anza has become a symbol of “squalor and decay” to people on the Avenue who pass it every day. But it could become a symbol of hope and revitalization, she added.

“We like the character of that building,” Flack said. “Maybe because we are a lot of characters ourselves out on the Avenue.”

The three-story brick building has six commercial spaces on the first floor, one of which the developers plan to donate rent-free to open a west side police storefront. The top two floors will be converted into affordable, low-income rental apartments. Work is expected to begin in the next month.

In addition to Exon Management’s Casa de Anza project, the council also approved:

* $156,000 to purchase a triplex house for recently employed homeless people who are getting their lives back together.

* $213,000 to develop a pilot rental and ownership program for low-income individuals or families on the Avenue or downtown.

The remaining $210,629--15% of the total federal housing funds accumulated from 1993-1996--must go to a local nonprofit housing organization.

Until this year, Cabrillo Economic Development Corp. was the only housing nonprofit organization in the county, and would therefore have received all of the funding.

The Cabrillo group proposed several projects on the Gisler property in east Ventura, but fierce neighborhood opposition delayed progress for nearly four years. In the meantime, two new nonprofit housing groups were established and became eligible to compete for funds.

The city will now accept proposals from the Cabrillo Economic Development Assn., Partners in Housing and Many Mansions for a project costing between $45,539 and $210,629 that can be funded within the next six months.