SHERMAN OAKS : $1.5 Million OKd for Senior Housing

The Los Angeles Housing Department has tentatively approved spending $1.5 million for the construction of a 100-unit senior citizens housing development in Sherman Oaks, a city housing official said Monday.

“The project may end up requiring a little more public money,” said housing finance officer David Perel. “There are several factors influencing it, but this is pretty close.”

The expenditure is part of the settlement of a 1991 lawsuit against the city in which a developer contended that the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan unfairly halted his project planned for the 13600 block of Ventura Boulevard at Woodman Avenue.

The site, a block-long stretch of prime Ventura Boulevard real estate, has since housed a string of run-down vacant buildings that city officials want destroyed because they attract vagrants and present a health hazard.

In addition to the housing, at least 40% of which will be reserved for low-income seniors, the structure will include 8,500 square feet of retail space, which has also been approved in the settlement but has lacked financial backing. But an attorney for developer Oved Ovadia said the private money needed to finance the deal is also coming together.

“We’re putting together the final touches on the full package,” said attorney Fred Gaines, of the law firm Reznik and Reznik. “Private financing has been arranged.”

Gaines said Ovadia hopes to go forward with the demolition within “the next couple of months.”