COUNCIL PAIR WANT HOUSING PLAN REVIVED : SENIORS APARTMENTS WIN SUPPORTERS.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

Saying there is a shortage of affordable housing for Simi Valley's elderly residents, two City Council members want the chance to to vote on a seniors apartment complex that faltered in the Planning Commission.

Council members Barbara Williamson and Bill Davis filed an appeal Friday of the Planning Commission's 2-2 vote on a $10 million project proposed for Wood Ranch.

``We are in desperate need of senior affordable housing in this community,'' Williamson said Monday. ``It's getting worse, and we need to address this.

``This is a perfect place for senior housing. It's next to buses, it's next to a community place where seniors can go and buy groceries and have some kind of community use.''

But the Planning Commission split over whether to rezone the 6-acre parcel on Country Club Drive for residential use, which the apartment project would need, or whether it should be reserved for a shopping center.

The joint appeal by Williamson and Davis - who both sit on the city's Affordable Housing Committee - means the City Council can consider the general plan, specific plan and zone changes needed to move the 148-unit project forward.

According to the city, the proposal by AMCAL Multi-Housing Inc. of Westlake Village would raise the number of affordable senior apartments from 345 to 492 units.

The city's Affordable Housing Subcommittee said in the fall that monthly rents for one- and two-bedroom apartments in the complex would be $425 to $545 for very-low-income residents and $517 to $619 for low-income tenants.

Ron Robinson, chairman of the Wood Ranch Homeowners School Committee, said the site is needed for a shopping center because Wood Ranch - which suffered under the sluggish real estate market in the early 1990s - is expected to be built out by the year 2004.

He proposed building the seniors apartments across the street from Wood Ranch on Madera Road; at the bottom of the hill from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; or in the Sycamore Village neighborhood of Wood Ranch.

``Basically, six years from now you can support all that retail. And that senior center, if it's built, will destroy all that,'' he said. ``So why not build it somewhere else?''

But senior advocate Cliff Snowden said there are about 180 seniors on waiting lists for low-income housing. He speculated that residents are concerned the project will lower their property values.

``We have no senior low-rent housing west of First Street - none,'' Snowden said. ``They're saying, yes, we want senior housing, but we don't want it in our area - keep it in the east of our city.''