Housing for Seniors OKd in ‘Young Area’ Over Protests : Zoning: Critics say the low-income apartments would be out of place near the trendy shops of a chichi strip of Ventura Boulevard.

Can seniors find happiness living next to such trendy Yuppie-shopping icons as Banana Republic, Tower Records and The Gap, shops that line a strip of Ventura Boulevard nicknamed the “Melrose Avenue of the Valley?”

Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and the Jewish Federation Council believe they can. They support a plan, approved Wednesday by the City Council, to build 83 apartments for low-income elderly people over a city-owned parking garage behind Tower Records in Sherman Oaks.

But others are not so sure this increasingly chichi stretch of Ventura Boulevard is senior-friendly, including leaders of a group that gathered the signatures of more than 800 like-minded local residents opposed to the project.

“It’s just not appropriate for seniors,” said Bill Dickinson, a local property owner, one of three to speak against the idea Wednesday.

“Imagine them buying clothes at the Gap or CDs at Tower Records,” said Dickinson, owner of a Burbank color graphics firm, who was picked by the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. to study the senior project. “There’s almost nothing nearby for seniors to spend their money on.”

John Johnson, manager of the Banana Republic outlet, said he would not want his grandparents living there.

“It’s kind of weird,” said the 29-year-old Beverly Hills resident. “This is really a young area--it’s where things are happening until 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.”

But Yaroslavsky hotly defended the proposal during Wednesday’s council hearing, angrily saying he did not want to hear “any pejorative remarks about low-income people; any pejorative remarks about senior citizens.”

“Where should we put a senior citizen housing project,” Yaroslavsky asked, but “in an area with one of the city’s highest concentrations of seniors?”

The Sherman Oaks flatlands have become a seniors enclave, the lawmaker said.

Maybe the nearby Le Cafe, an intimate jazz club, or the adjoining Paul Jardin clothing outlet, will not provide shopping opportunities for seniors, Yaroslavsky agreed in an interview. But the elderly who live in the project can easily board buses on Ventura Boulevard and quickly get to markets and shopping areas that will meet their needs, he said.

“If this area wasn’t friendly to seniors, why are so many living there already?” Yaroslavsky added.

Sam Feingloss, a local spokesman for the elderly, agreed.

“As far as I’m concerned, the site is ideal. It’s near shopping and transit,” he said. “There isn’t enough low-income housing for seniors as is.”

The project is sponsored by the Jewish Federation Council, which has a $6-million, low-interest loan commitment from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department to build the project at 14559 Dickens St.--a narrow street one block south of and parallel to Ventura Boulevard.

The city’s involvement consists of selling the Jewish organization the right to build the 83-unit project over an existing city-owned parking lot for $1.6 million. The ground-level lot now has 137 metered spaces.

In fact, the city will get “paid” in the form of 72 additional parking spaces that are to be built by the developer, said attorney Howard Katz, consultant to the nonprofit developer.

Under current rules, a single eligible senior cannot make more than $13,600 yearly to rent in such a project, Katz said. Tenants would pay 30% of their income in rent.

When finished, the project will be four stories tall. The lower two floors will consist of 209 public, metered parking spaces and 41 spaces reserved for the seniors, and the top two floors will contain the housing units.

Wednesday, on a 14-0 vote, the council approved the zone change, plan amendment and environmental findings necessary to move the project forward.

The project is the third of its kind to be built in Yaroslavsky’s district over a city-owned parking lot. A similar project in the Pico-Robertson area also was built by the Jewish Federation Council with Katz as consultant. Katz is Yaroslavsky’s former chief deputy, and his wife, Alisa, is the councilman’s present chief deputy.

Meanwhile, Yaroslavsky’s insinuations that foes of the Sherman Oaks project are age-biased made no sense to Bunny Wilk, a local condo owner and one of those who spoke against the project Wednesday.

“This isn’t going to work,” said Wilk, who admitted only to be older than her 69-year-old companion, Gloria King, another opponent. “The kids now line up to buy rock concert tickets at Tower Records. How are the seniors going to get by them? Do they really want to live next door to this?”