HUNTINGTON BEACH : Low-Cost Housing Project OKd Again

The city’s on-again, off-again low-cost housing project for the Florida-Utica area is now on-again.

The City Council this week once more approved financing for an apartment renovation in the once-crime-ridden area. The council originally had approved the plan on April 4, but in an unusual move rescinded that vote on April 6.

The council’s turnabout came after Councilman David Sullivan questioned financing for the project. Sullivan again voted against the project on Monday night, but the other six council members supported the low-cost housing plan, saying the financing supported a much-needed improvement.

Under the city’s plan, the private owners of a apartment complex at 725-733 Utica Ave. will receive a $446,000 forgivable loan. The loan will not have to be paid back if the owners rent the apartments only to low-income families for the next 30 years. The city also is providing a $100,000 grant for security lighting and landscaping in the apartment-complex area.

In a report to the council, Mike Adams, the city’s director of special projects, said that rehabilitation of the run-down apartment complex is a key to continuing neighborhood improvement in the areas of Florida Street and Utica Avenue.

According to police, the Florida-Utica neighborhood had once been a high-crime area, with drug dealing among the problems. A police crackdown, coupled with a neighborhood task force, has greatly helped the area, city officials have said.

But city staffers have said rehabilitation of the run-down, aging apartment complex at 725-733 Utica Ave. is a key to continued neighborhood improvement.

Councilman Ralph Bauer on Monday night said he agreed that improvement of the apartments is a worthy goal. “This used to be a drug-infested, prostitution-infested area,” Bauer said.