PLACENTIA : Plan for Apartment Ownership Rejected

Despite testimony that investment apartments have worked well elsewhere, the City Council narrowly rejected a proposed amendment that would have allowed owners of apartment complexes to sell pairs of units to individual investors.

By a 3-2 vote last week, the council upheld a decision by the Planning Commission, which decided last month that investment apartments could result in increased rents.

The proposed amendment was written by city staff at the request of Village Investments, which owns an apartment complex in Placentia. Joyce Rosenthal, director of development services, told the council that investment apartments have been well received in Lakewood and Fountain Valley.

Proponents say investment apartments result in improvements to the complex and establish a maintenance fund for continuing upkeep. The pool of rental housing is not diminished because owners are not allowed to occupy the units, they say.

Allowing investment apartments would offer the city an opportunity to review existing complexes and require improvements before they could be sold to investors, said Village Investments representative Richard Harlow.

Despite Harlow’s assurance that converting complexes to investment apartments seldom results in raised rents or evicted tenants, Councilwoman Maria Moreno was concerned that there was no provision in the amendment forbidding these actions.

Councilmen Arthur G. Newton and Norman Z. Eckenrode voted to approve the amendment.