Housing Plan Approved by Council : Development: The Civic Center West Project is praised for offering a large number of low-income units. Little financial risk to city seen.

The City Council voted Tuesday to go ahead with a 366-unit housing development a block from City Hall, praising the plan for offering extraordinary housing benefits with little financial risk for the city.

The $54-million Civic Center West Project, proposed for land surrounding the city’s old police headquarters, or Hall of Justice, includes 287 “market-rate” apartments and 73 low-income apartments.

“That’s the most that have ever been done by the city,” said Mayor Jess Hughston, referring to the low-income units.

The other apartments will be rented primarily to professionals, singles and couples, at the higher end of the rental market, a city report said.

Hughston, who has set the city on a course of enhancing human services in the past 1 1/2 years, and five other council members present voted to proceed with the project. Councilman William Paparian was absent.

Santa Monica developer William Janss has been negotiating with the city since 1988 to build the Civic Center West Project. Tuesday’s vote does not formally commit the city to the project, but for all practical purposes it gives the project the go-ahead, said city staff members involved with the negotiations. The development would require no zoning changes, according to Housing and Development Director William Reynolds.

If negotiations are concluded as planned, the project could be completed by early 1994, said Marsha Rood, the city’s development operations director.

The council’s action authorized city staff to finalize a deal with Janss following a set of guidelines--or “business points”--which protect the city from significant risk.

“The vote authorizes negotiations along the lines of the business points,” said Deputy City Atty. Thomas Reynolds. “Those will be put into the original agreement with Janss and brought back (to the council).”

Janss, who was present at the council meeting, said he was committed to the outlines of the deal.

The city’s commitment would include $6.9 million worth of loans to Janss--the same price which Janss will pay the city for the land--and $1.5 million in grants for the low-income apartments and for a parking structure and utility relocation. The city expects to receive $520,000 from the project in property tax increases.

Built-in safeguards, including substantial penalties to Janss for loan defaults, reduce the city’s exposure to risk, said Finance Director Mary Bradley.

“There is no impact on the city’s general funds,” she said.

The proposed apartments, on a site bounded by Holly and Walnut streets, Marengo Avenue and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad tracks, will be in Mediterranean-style buildings from two to five stories, with stucco walls and tiled roofs. A Janss spokesman said the low-income dwellings would rent from $450 per month for a small one-bedroom apartment to $625 a month for a two-bedroom unit.

The project will also include 11,000 square feet of retail space, 16 lofts in the remodeled Hall of Justice building and the Blue Line station, which is expected to be in use in about four years.

Council members were particularly impressed by the project’s high proportion of low-income apartments. Housing Administrator Phyllis Mueller reported an acute need for such housing in the city.

The city’s housing authority has such a long list of applicants waiting for federally subsidized apartments that it stopped taking names, Mueller said. The list now includes 656 applicants, she said.