Bidding is open for developers willing to take on the task of transforming San Pedro’s aging subsidized government housing project that’s long been criticized as holding back waterfront redevelopment.
Bids are due Jan. 18 for what city officials hope will result in a design of a “a state-of-the-art, 21-acre neighborhood surrounded by over $3 billion of investment.” A selection is expected to be made by July 2018.
The city has promised Rancho San Pedro residents they “will not be permanently displaced.” If relocation is required, it will only be temporarily during construction. “All households in good standing will have the right to return,” the RFP states.
It’s not the first time a subsidized housing project has been revitalized.
The fourth and final phase of the replacement makeover of Dana Strand, Wilmington’s aging and long-troubled public housing development, is about two-thirds complete, with the new apartments set to be ready by the first quarter of 2018.
Harbor Village in Harbor City was a makeover of the former Normont Terrace project.
Those projects, city planners say, are created to be indistinguishable from the surrounding community and, thus, the stigma of low-income housing projects becomes a thing of the past.
Downtown, waterfront impacts
San Pedro’s housing project, built during World War II to house defense workers, has come into sharp focus as the waterfront and downtown districts strive to polish their images amid a spark of growing interest among developers.
In the late 1980s. a proposal by the San Pedro Peninsula Chamber of Commerce to bulldoze the low-income housing project and replace it with commercial space drew a public outcry.
But with guarantees that affordable units will be replaced and expanded — along with the success of the other projects that have since been redeveloped using the new public housing models — discussion of revitalizing that area this time around has so far encountered little controversy.
And since Rancho San Pedro includes a stretch of apartments along the west side of Harbor Boulevard, the property is central to future plans for the waterfront and community.
Nearly three years ago, Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino and the city’s housing authority initiated the move by asking firms to evaluate the feasibility of a makeover at the 478-unit Rancho San Pedro housing project adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles headquarters and across from the Battleship Iowa museum.
Under the recently released request for proposals, the city is calling for a more densely planned community that also would have taller buildings and feature a range of prices and types of housing, both affordable and market rate. Retail and commercial uses would be part of the mix.
Project residents part of the planning
Meetings with RSP residents in recent months indicated that priorities would include home-ownership opportunities, more affordable apartments, grocery stores, early childhood education, job training centers and community and recreation centers.
“We anticipate that the second level of responses will give us a detailed schedule for design and project start,” said Annie Kim, director of the housing authority’s communications and program development.
Depending on the scope of development, she said, construction start could take place two to five years after that.
If the project goes forward as planned, it would coincide with other new housing and waterfront projects already in the queue.
Interested developers are invited to a preproposal conference to discuss the project and answer questions at 2 p.m. Nov. 28 at the Rancho San Pedro office, 275 W. First St. A tour of the site will follow.
Proposals will be accepted until 2 p.m. Jan. 18 by the housing authority at 2600 Wilshire Blvd., 4th Floor, Los Angeles CA 90057. A ranking of proposals will be determined on Feb. 19.
Rancho San Pedro’s first phase — 284 units on 12.5 acres — was constructed in 1942 for U.S. Defense Department workers. It was converted to public housing in 1952 and, after World War II, 194 units were added on an additional 8.7 acres.
