Long Beach : Council Overrides Planners to Approve Housing Project

Overriding the Planning Commission, the Long Beach City Council has approved a zoning change to allow construction of a seven-story, 75-unit housing project for senior citizens on Atlantic Avenue.

The commission, on a 3-3 vote that failed to muster a majority approval, last month denied the rezoning out of concern that a high-rise would be out of scale with a nearby residential neighborhood. Commissioners were also worried that the proposed project would be located in a high-crime area that could prove dangerous for the project’s elderly residents.

But council members this week unanimously voted in favor of the complex, which will be built at 1451 Atlantic Ave. on land owned by the city’s Department of Community Development. The project will be built with funds from the local Housing Authority and the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.