Court of Appeal decision on the City of Cerritos/ABC Unified School District/Cuesta Villas Affordable Senior Housing Project becomes law
(July 2010)
Updated August 16, 2010
The Court of Appeal of the State of California, Second Appellate District, Division Eight, issued a court document known as a “remittitur” on June 22, 2010, which declares as final the lawsuit that challenged an affordable senior housing project in the City of Cerritos. As such, the decision of the Court of Appeal becomes legally binding, and the case is no longer capable of being appealed to or reviewed by the California Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s validation of the City of Cerritos, Cerritos Redevelopment Agency, ABC Unified School District, and Cuesta Villas Housing Corporation’s “Affordable Housing, Financing, and Disposition and Development Agreement.”
Under the project agreement, ABC Unified School District (District) will lease surplus property located at 16700 Norwalk Boulevard, the current site of the District’s administrative offices, to the Cerritos Redevelopment Agency (Agency). The Agency will then assign its rights to the ground lease to Cuesta Villas, a private, non-profit corporation, which will then construct 247 apartments with 207 units for moderate-income senior households, 15 for low-income senior households and 25 for very low-income senior households. A new 13,000-square-foot senior center and a park will also be part of the development. (If additional school facilities are needed in the future, the 4.04-acre park would be made available for the development of school classroom facilities.)
To facilitate the development of the affordable senior housing project, the City of Cerritos, using Agency funds that must be used to increase the City’s supply of affordable housing, purchased two properties located at 12880 Moore Street and 12881 166th Street to accommodate a kitchen/warehouse facility and administrative offices for the District. The current District office and kitchen/warehouse operations will be relocated to the purchased buildings. The District will have an option to purchase the buildings.
In addition to meeting the housing needs of the community, Cuesta Villas will fulfill requirements under State laws governing redevelopment agencies and local housing.
The District would maintain ownership of the developed Norwalk Boulevard property under a ground lease and would receive over $3 million annually in ground lease rent. After the expiration of the 55-year lease with Cuesta Villas, the property and related improvements would be given back to the District.
