Council Clears Way for Luxury Condos

A luxury condominium project appears headed for construction after the City Council rejected an environmental group’s attempt to block it.

In a Tuesday meeting that lasted past midnight, 80 people packed the tiny council chambers and listened to Citizens to Protect the Ojai’s request to reverse the Planning Commission’s approval of the 23-unit Los Arboles project, proposed for three acres on South Montgomery Street.

More than 30 residents spoke for or against the project, but ultimately the City Council decided in favor of Los Arboles.

“The city is better off with this project than without it,” Councilwoman Sue Horgan said. “I believe [it] will invigorate the downtown and breathe new life into a blighted area.”

Other council members agreed, although some expressed reservations about the project’s size. Many residents said they support single-family homes on the property--which is just east of downtown Ojai’s Libbey Park--but not densely packed condos.

Horgan said that asking the developers to redesign it with fewer condominiums would not be economically feasible.

The meeting was the council’s first view of a revamped version of the Mediterranean-style project, with fewer units than previously sought and walls and security gates removed. Developer and property owner Lance Smigel said about 150 trees would dot the property.

Supporters included prospective buyers, downtown merchants and artists who said it would be good for business.

Smigel said he expects the two- and three-bedroom condos to sell for an average of $400,000. Construction will start in the spring and the developer said he already has a waiting list of 50 prospective buyers.

The project replaces 29 cottages built in the 1940s to house railroad workers. By the early 1990s, the site had became home to transients and drug dealers. The cottages have since been razed.