Celebrating a year of local artists and our local arts scene
Vol. 36 No. 31
January 2 , 2015
SERVING BIXBY KNOLLS, CALIFORNIA HEIGHTS, LOS CERRITOS, WRIGLEY AND THE CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
Your Weekly Community Newspaper
LB city staff to propose ‘multi-housing habitability ordinance’ while group calls for landlord accountability
Sean Belk Staff Writer
Photo by Sue Vanzant
Photo shows a palm-lined pathway from Atlantic Avenue to the original clubhouse at Houghton Park. The City of Long Beach’s plan is to keep the historic palms and pathway to lead from Atlantic to the new clubhouse that is part of an updated community center being discussed by city officials.
Project to build new Houghton Park community center in north Long Beach to be discussed at public meeting
Sean Belk Staff Writer
Residents, students and senior citizens next month will have a chance to weigh in on plans for a new community center to be built at Houghton Park in north Long Beach that would replace all or a portion of a more than 80-year-old historical structure. For years, the Houghton Park Community Center has been utilized year-round for neighborhood meetings and programs for youth, adults and seniors in the north Long Beach area. The complex consists of a “clubhouse” that was first built in 1930 and additions that were made in the 1940s and 1950s, according to local historians. Over the years, however, the center has been left in disrepair, and the surrounding community, which has “outlived” the facility, according to city officials, has requested that the City build a new center. As part of ongoing renovations to Houghton Park, located in the 9th Council District at 6301 Myrtle Ave. off of Atlantic Avenue, the City has embarked on a project to build a new community center that, according to city staff, would cost nearly $10 million. The 9th Council District office has launched a website about renovations to the park at imaginehoughton.com
and is hosting a community meeting on Jan. 14 from 6pm to 7:30pm to seek input on the new center’s design. The meeting, according to the website, will be held at the existing community center. In September, the Long Beach City Council awarded a $1.3-million contract to Culver City-based Studio Pali Fekete Architects to solicit public input and design the new center. While city officials have said that preserving a portion of the existing historical center is still on the table, local landmark preservationists are still troubled that the project calls for demolishing the entire complex, including the clubhouse that has Spanish-revivalstyle architecture dating back to the 1930s. The Long Beach Heritage Foundation, a nonprofit education and advocacy group for preserving historical and architectural resources and neighborhoods in Long Beach, has recently launched a “call to action” to save the historic buildings. In the 1920s, three acres of a farm owned by the family of Col. Sherman Otis Houghton, a famed landowner and early American pioneer who was elected to the United States Congress after serving in the Civil War, was donated to the City for the purposes of building a park in north Long Beach. In 1930, the City built a clubhouse
Weekly Weather Forecast Friday
61°
Saturday
Plenty of sun
Lo 38°
65°
Plenty of sun
Sunday
70°
Sun and some clouds
Monday
Lo 44°
Lo 47°
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Tuesday
Plenty of sun
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January 2 through January 6, 2015
72° 72°
Clouds and sun
that was designed by George W. Ferris, who worked in the city engineer’s office, according the Heritage Foundation. “It is an excellent example of Spanish Revival style architecture with many Moorish details and contains an auditorium framed by a curvilinear moulding, recessed arches with painted heraldic motifs on the side walls, and a ceiling with elaborately carved wooden beams,” according to post about the community center on the Heritage Foundation’s website. In 1946, local architect Harold Wildman added a structure with American colonial Revival-style architecture to the complex, according to the Heritage Foundation. A recreation center for Jordan High School students by the Long Beach firm of John Duffy and Leo Dreher was attached to the original clubhouse in 1959. This was designed in a mid-century modern mode with large expanses of glass windows. The Heritage Foundation expresses concerns that “all of these structures are facing demolition and replacement by a new building in the near future.” According to a city staff report, the City Council appropriated $3 million from one-time surplus funds in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget during former
Long Beach city staff are planning to develop a more proactive code-enforcement process for multi-family buildings that would “safeguard the stock of decent, safe and sanitary rental housing in the city.” Affordable-housing advocates applaud the program, however, they say that it’s only the “first step” to keep landlords accountable for “substandard” dwellings. According to a statement provided by Jacqueline Medina, spokesperson for Long Beach Development Services (LBDS), the proposed Multi-Housing Habitability Ordinance/Program (MHHP) would establish a “multi-housing habitability inspection program designed to maintain livability standards, prevent blight, secure citywide compliance and help to ensure tenant protections by using best practices that are more efficient, effective and conducive to the City of Long Beach.” A date for when the ordinance would be brought forward to the City Council for discussion is yet to be determined, she said. The new ordinance comes after affordable-housing advocacy group Housing Long Beach and other organizations called on the City earlier this year to propose a rent escrow account program (REAP) among other requests as part of Long Beach’s eight-year Housing Element planning document. New programs that were added to the Housing Element include a “right of first refusal” program for displaced low-income residents and expanding the zoning code to include areas the City would allow emergency shelters by right and planning transit-oriented development, particularly along the Blue Line corridor on Long Beach Boulevard. In addition, city staff proposed studying the possibility of a REAP, which is already implemented in the City of Los Angeles and allows residents living in “substandard units” to pay their rent to the City where it’s held in an account until code violations are fixed by the landlord. During a Council meeting in January, however, city staff pointed out that it’s not clear if a REAP is needed in Long Beach, noting that only 24 rental units out of the 10,000 units the City deals with annually in code-enforcement issues have been deemed “substandard.” At the request of former 9th District Councilmember Steven Neal, the Council approved a friendly amendment to have city staff come back with a full analysis of a REAP in addition to other programs throughout the state that deal with habitability issues for rental units by the end of this year. The Housing Element for a REAP states that the City will “explore” the program and present a report to the Council by December. However, affordablehousing advocates are calling on the City to take action on the program rather than just explore it. “We don’t just want exploration, we want action on a more robust accountability system,” said Kerry Gallagher, executive director of Housing Long Beach, in a phone interview. Gallagher said it was thought that city staff would bring forward a REAP proposal to the Council in January, but she said that now appears not to be the case as city staff are not recommending such a program. “Unfortunately, city staff has had a couple concerns about the program and aren’t interested in launching a new program,” she said. However, Gallagher added that some councilmembers are “supportive” of a REAP in Long Beach. “At this point in our understanding, there is not going to be an ordinance placed before the Council by staff, we’re learning,” she said. “It’s going to have to be left up to the leadership for the Council. I don’t think it’s going to be something that’s led by city staff.” Gallagher said city staff was required to submit a report on the possibility of a REAP as part of the new Housing Element, however, she noted that staff would be able to submit the report to the Council through a memo rather than at a Council meeting that would allow for public discussion. According to Housing Long Beach, a REAP would allow tenants residing in “substandard homes” to pay their rent, or a reduced rent, to the City until their homes are repaired. “At no cost to the City, the program would repair “dilapidated units” and would protect tenants from “unfair retaliation,” according to the group. “REAP creates city accountability and protects tenants from unfair retalia-
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