If you want to see a great example of the city encouraging the destruction of single family homes to make way for high density housing buildings come to Whittier. We are the kings. Before my time I am told by Senator Linda Berglins aid Lou Tofte that while the "republicans" were in charge of the city in the 70's, they encouraged people to buy up single family homes, raze them and construct 2 1/2 story walk-ups in their places. They ripped down an entire block of them to make way for Whittier Park. There was a shortage of affordable housing then as well. We have lived with the affects of it ever since. While some of these buildings have been a great contribution to the neighborhood such as the ones run by Mel Gregerson, there have been many of them that were poorly constructed with short shelf lives. In some cases, the shelf life ended in the late 80's and early 90's. The neighborhood used it's NRP funds to buy them and rehab them into permanent 3-4 bedroom affordable housing units at 50% of MMI. All in all, it's turned out to be a very very expensive way to provide affordable housing.
Maybe there will there be a different spin put on it in the new millenium if it is done with a democrat city council at the helm?
I hope in the changes the planning commission wants to make to the zoning code to alleviate barriers to affordable housing that they do not repeal the quarter mile spacing requirement. This will not happen without a very intense battle.
Barb Lickness/Whittier
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead
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