Housing project races against the calendar

June Casagrande

A senior affordable housing project could cost up to $1 million more

in workers’ wages if last-minute environmental studies push the

matter past a deadline to get on a Coastal Commission agenda in June.

City staff have been scrambling to move the project forward to

beat the state’s impending prevailing-wage laws that will spell about

$1 million in added costs if work doesn’t start by December. But to

get all the necessary approvals, permits and funding to start work by

December, staff members say the matter must make it onto the next

Coastal Commission agenda.

“If we don’t make it by June, and get it approved, then the

project probably will be subject to prevailing-wage laws,” Assistant

City Manager Sharon Wood said.

The Lower Bayview Landing senior affordable housing project got

bumped from the commission’s April agenda after environmentalists

discovered that the site might contain protected wetlands.

Preliminary environmental studies did not include any information

that wetlands existed there.

“There are three areas that look as though they may qualify as

wetlands that may be protected under the coastal act,” said Jan

Vandersloot, the Newport environmentalist who discovered wetlands

plant life at the site and called it to the attention of city

officials.

After Vandersloot said that he observed willows, salt marsh

heliotrope, alkali heath and other wetlands plants at the site, the

Coastal Commission postponed voting on the project to conduct further

environmental studies.

If it is determined that the site contains wetlands, planners

could work around protected areas, perhaps incorporating them into a

park already planned at the site.

The project will help the city meet state requirements for

providing affordable housing by creating 150 apartments for low- and

moderate-income seniors near the intersection of Jamboree Road and

Back Bay Drive.