The controversial joint apartment project at Fairfax and Fountain overcame the last hurdle on the way to construction on Tuesday night when the city council voted 4-1 to reject an appeal to suspend its work.
Tip first considered the complaint back in December and found enough benefits in it for developers to make last-minute changes before re-evaluating Tuesday.
The project provoked fierce opposition on a number of fronts.
The developers, represented at the meeting by Edward Levin of Levin-Morris Architects, described the building as 17 “apartment blocks,” which is not the same as individual apartments. The 17 residential units are actually 79 rented rooms, each of which is grouped into groups of four or five to share one kitchen, living room, dining room and laundry room.
While Levin blew the trumpet about the building as state-of-the-art affordable housing, neighbors who called for the call, along with many on the city council, instead saw a clumsy, insincere attempt to take advantage of California’s Density Bonus Act to get 50 percent bonus. up to six units in exchange for providing affordable housing.
The semantics confused and angered residents such as Robert Smith, who lives in Spaulding Square.
“I am offended by this bureaucratic conversation,” he said. “This whole project is so big and so dangerous that I don’t know how the conversation went so far. You can sit and watch the absolute chaos – it’s a really dangerous place. Benefit only to those who benefit. It’s all a description of whether it’s an SRO or an apartment, who’s going to be there, a 10-foot retreat – I think it’s all just nonsense. You pigs want to keep building this. ”
Inaccessible housing was originally merged together rather than spreading throughout the building, prompting Council member John Erickson to suspend the approval process in December. But while the changes presented Tuesday night pleased Erickson and three other board members, they did not convince Mayor Lauren Meister, who sided with the applicants during the final vote.
“I was not convinced by the arguments of the staff,” she said. “Their responses do not confirm that the project is not an SRO,” referring to a one-room unit, a designation that would give the city much more control over the project.
“I agree that parking for 79 bedrooms, some of which can accommodate two people, is not enough,” she said.
The building will have only 32 parking spaces – 30 for residents and two for off-street delivery. Developers believe that future tenants will not necessarily be car owners, an idea ridiculed by opponents of the project.
“Where do we plan to put these extra 40 cars?” Asked Robert Chan, who lives nearby in the Orange Grove.
“I agree that public safety is at stake when the entrance, exit and delivery exit into the right-hand lane of the main corridor,” the Master continued.
“I agree that the PC (Planning Commission) made a mistake by legislating a new zoning category on the fly without design instructions and without standards ”.
The Master then challenged several of the rationales used to defend the project.
“The applicant has no right to indicate to the city which rent should be available, and the applicant’s ability or inability to profit from these available premises is not really our problem. In addition, the applicant cannot claim that affordable bedrooms are units to get higher rents, but argues that the rest of the project consists of households to have lower parking requirements. ”
“I understand that my colleagues will vote for it without even hearing my comments,” she concluded, “but I just want to make sure it’s written down.”