La Mirada : Housing Project Protested

About a dozen residents picketed La Mirada City Hall this week demanding that the City Council cancel an agreement with a St. Louis-based developer to build a three-story, 163-unit senior citizen retirement home at 13001 La Mirada Blvd.

The group, Citizens Assn. of La Mirada Inc., is opposed to the project because it would place a high-density development in an area zoned for single-family homes. A spokesman for the group said the housing complex would add to the city’s traffic problems and is too expensive for most of the city’s elderly. The studio and one-bedroom units would cost between $950 and $1,350 a month.

Construction was to begin April 1, but the builder, LOVE Inc. of St. Louis, has been unable to purchase the former First Baptist Church site near Tacuba Drive. As a result, City Manager Gary K. Sloan said a new round of public hearings on the project will begin April 16 when the Planning Commission reviews the development. Last fall, both the commission and City Council approved the project, which will be financed, in part, by a federal housing grant.

Opponents of the project on Monday marched about a half-mile from the vacant church to City Hall to deliver their demand that the development be scrapped. Some residents carried signs that read, “No High Density” or “Slow Growth.” Another said, “We may be a bedroom community, but we’re not asleep.” Should the council approve the project a second time, leaders of CALM said they will take the issue to voters in La Mirada by placing it on the ballot.