Project Linked to Housing Replacement : Watt City Center Developer Required to Build Low-Income Units

Partially persuaded by a band of Latino neighbors ringing their hearing chamber with a string of 900 post cards, the city Planning Commission on Thursday set strict requirements for replacing razed low-income housing before approving the first phase of a controversial $600-million office complex.

The Watt City Center is to be built downtown, west of the Harbor Freeway between 7th and 8th streets by developer Ray Watt, for whom it is named.

Units for Low-Income

In approving the building permit for the first 27-story tower, the five-member commission unanimously agreed that Watt must build 82 residential units for low-income families in the same vicinity as his proposed complex and have them ready for occupancy at the same time as the office tower.

“This was an excellent precedent set today,” Father Philip Lance, a Roman Catholic priest who organized the post-card brigade, said after the vote. “It shows developers that whatever phase of a project it’s tied to, the requirement for replacement housing is not easy to get around. We are delighted!”

“This is momentous,” said Legal Aid Foundation attorney Michael Bodaken, who represents the protesters. “This is the first time the Planning Commission has done this for a very big project. It is fantastic--requiring housing be built at the same time.”

The commission also denied a permit for a second 62-story tower but said the developer can renew that application at a later date. The commissioners denied a permit for an eight-story parking garage after the developer volunteered to withdraw that application to reduce concerns that the complex would generate excessive traffic.

Final approval for the project will be up to the City Council.

Although the 82 housing units in the development area were razed before Watt bought the property, replacement of the units is required for approval of any proposed development.

Where and when the new homes protesters.

About 140 members of the United Neighbors of Temple Beaudry and City West took two buses to City Hall to display about half of the 2,000 signed post cards they have circulated to symbolize the 2,200 low-cost homes destroyed in the area since 1980. Grandmothers and toddlers stood silently through the nearly three-hour debate to make their point.

Kent Purcell, former City Councilman Arthur K. Snyder and other spokesmen for the developer assured the commission that a “blank check” would be provided for replacement housing, even though an overall plan for Central City West, with general requirements for such housing, has not been finalized.

‘Benefit Package’

They said the developer would provide a total “benefit package” of about $32 million, including housing, a day-care center, transportation improvements and $100,000 for the Gilbert Lindsay Senior Citizens Center.

But they also urged the commission to follow tradition by allowing Lindsay, in whose 9th District Watt City Center is to be built, to choose the location for the new housing that legally could be anywhere in his district. They also hoped to delay construction of the housing units.

Lindsay appeared briefly before the commission to urge approval of the entire project, stating that he had known Watt for some time and supports the center “vigorously.”

Councilwoman Gloria Molina, supporting the neighborhood group, asked the commission to require prompt and proximate replacement of the low-income housing razed nearly four years ago.

After mulling over their decision in a post-vote recess, commissioners commented that they should tie the housing to the second phase of the development--the 62-story tower--rather than to the first-phase 27-story tower.

But their second thoughts did not alter their decision, so the housing construction will remain a requirement of the project’s first phase when the matter goes to the council.

Councilman Marvin Braude spoke in opposition to the development on the grounds that it would double the number of vehicles on the Harbor Freeway and create gridlock detrimental to the whole city.

Snyder, now working as a lobbyist, said Watt agreed to withdraw the proposed free-standing parking garage after the Central City West Assn. of businessmen said it was “premature” and unneeded at this time. He said that would reduce the estimated traffic increase created by Watt City Center by 25%.

Each of the two proposed towers contains underground parking.