IRVINE : Builder Has Bone to Pick With City

A builder who has complained that he has been singled out with stiff municipal requirements on an affordable-housing project will make a final appeal tonight before the City Council.

Ernest Cohen, a general partner in the 261-unit Metropolitan condominium project in the Irvine Business Complex, said the requirements he agreed to in 1989 were not similarly enforced in recent development projects by the Irvine Co.

“I want to be treated like they are treating the Irvine Co. I don’t think it’s fair,” Cohen said.

Cohen’s 1989 agreement calls for him to give away 10 of his condominiums and $250,000 to a nonprofit housing corporation to satisfy the city’s affordable-housing requirements.

Last month, with the first phase of the condominium project nearing completion, Cohen asked the council to void the agreement because of his concerns for the project’s profitability.

At that time, council members told Cohen they might not now require such strict affordable-housing standards. However, the council said he would still have to abide by the initial agreement.

The council did give Cohen until today to come up with an alternative plan to satisfy the affordable-housing requirements and still cover the 1989 agreement.

City staff members and Cohen discussed alternatives Monday but still were unable to agree on a solution, Cohen said.

Cohen said he wanted to rewrite one of the options in the 1989 agreement but claimed the Irvine community development staff would not agree to his modifications.

He offered to sell 15% of the units at a steep discount to low-income families, as the 1989 agreement allows. As part of that offer, he also asked that resale restrictions be lifted. The restrictions were designed to maintain affordability.

City staff members will recommend to the council tonight that Cohen be held to the original agreement.

Cohen has repeatedly complained that the affordable-housing requirements placed on his project are much stricter than those the council has placed on recent major projects.