Planning Commission vetoes low-income housing

Eron Ben-Yehuda

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- Despite the need for affordable housing, the Planning

Commission rejected plans Tuesday for a low-income residential project

considered too risky for the surrounding community.

“I just don’t feel comfortable risking this area,” Commissioner Connie

Mandic said.

Local developer Amwest Environmental Group Inc. proposed building a

three-story, 107-unit apartment complex on Ellis Avenue by Beach

Boulevard. Only individuals who meet the federal criteria for making low-

and very low-incomes would have qualified to rent the single-room studios

for about $500 per month.

But concerns that traffic and crime would ruin what some consider a

stable pocket of the community led the commission to reject the project

by a 4-3 vote. Chairman Gerald Chapman and Commissioners Ed Kearns and

Tom Livengood dissented.

About a dozen nearby residents showed up for the meeting. Most argued

that the facility would be a magnet for drug addicts, alcoholics and

prostitutes, even though the developer agreed to check the criminal

background of prospective tenants.

“That tells you who got caught, not who is doing what,” said resident

John Craney, who lives across from the site.

Other safety measures the developer intended to implement included

posting a guard on the premises at all times, installing 24-hour

closed-circuit television monitors in the common areas and requiring

visitors to check in with management.

But these precautions failed to satisfy Commissioner Fred Speaker, who

said he doubted the city could enforce these security arrangements.

“Our history in this city is that we haven’t been able to control

anything,” he said.

The decision stunned James Lu, the development company’s president, who

said the type of tenants he planned to rent to included students, nurses

and the elderly. These people are being discriminated against, he said.

“Are we saying low-income people should live in a bad area?” he asked.

And Kearns dismissed concerns about the area taking a turn for the worst.

“I believe the fear of crime is just that, a scare tactic,” he said.

The city’s principal planner, Scott Hess, warned the commission that its

decision hurts the city’s goal of providing affordable housing.

“The biggest loser is not just us,” Lu said. “It’s the whole community.”