ANAHEIM : District Opposes Apartment Project

The 124-unit Brookhollow Apartments, an innovative housing development that will give partial ownership to nonprofit groups, has been stalled by school district officials who say there’s no classroom space for the children who would live there.

Anaheim City School District officials say they are frustrated with city government, which continues to allow new housing projects even though the 21-campus elementary school system is overcrowded.

The Planning Commission approved the Brookhollow project, but the school district has appealed to the City Council. The council has scheduled a hearing on May 21.

“We are at the point where any kind of residential project hurts the district, even a 10-unit complex,” said Maria-Elena Romero, district director of strategic planning. “It all adds up.”

District officials previously raised the issue of overcrowding when the city began courting a proposed 1,341-unit housing project at the site of a former Northrop Corp. plant. Such a project, school officials said, would add hundreds of children to the already overenrolled school system.

“It’s not just our project,” said Shirley O’Connor, assistant project manager for the William Lyon Co., which is developing the Brookhollow project with another firm. “It’s any project in Anaheim.”

The Brookhollow project, hailed by community leaders as a creative way to help nonprofit organizations, is a 124-unit complex on about 5.5 acres near the northeast corner of Brookhurst Street and Crescent Avenue.

The project was previously stalled when one of the original development partners dropped out.

The developers plan to give 20% ownership of the building to three nonprofit groups--the Anaheim Interfaith Shelter, California Lutheran Homes and Orangewood Children’s Foundation. The groups would use their shares, which are 10%, 5% and 5% respectively, to generate income from rents to help operate their organizations’ programs.

Twenty-five units are set aside as affordable housing for residents with very low incomes.

The school district estimates that about 50 children will live at the complex--five times as many as the 10 forecast by the developers.

School district officials complain that overcrowding has forced some schools to go on a year-round schedule and the use of portable classrooms on nearly every campus. They want developers to help by donating land or imposing a special tax that would help build new schools.

The developers, however, argue that they are paying required fees--about $214,000 to be split between the elementary and high school districts--and cannot donate any land. Instead, the developers offered to help build amenities, such as extra classrooms, at existing schools.