HOUSING FOR ELDERLY TO UNITE CITY SITES CIVIC CENTER AREA WILL BE BEAUTIFIED.Byline: Jim Skeen Do you mean:
PALMDALE - City officials hope to begin construction this winter on a project that will renovate the area around the Civic Center and provide affordable housing for the elderly and a new senior center. City officials hope to begin construction this winter of 75 units of senior housing for the Courson Connection project planned between Courson Park and the Civic Center. The units would be built north of Avenue Q-11 between Ninth and 10th streets east. All of the buildings for the Courson Connection will be done in the Spanish-Mediterranean style so the units fit in near the Civic Center. ``It'll be a huge improvement in terms of the beautification beau·ti·fy tr. & intr.v. beau·ti·fied, beau·ti·fy·ing, beau·ti·fies To make or become beautiful. beau of the downtown area,'' Councilman Richard Loa said. Some 300 units are planned, as well as a new senior center and an open-space area. The project is intended to spruce up spruce up Verb [sprucing, spruced] to make neat and smart Verb 1. spruce up - make neat, smart, or trim; "Spruce up your house for Spring"; "titivate the child" an aging area and make an eye-pleasing connection among the Civic Center, Courson Park and the Palmdale Playhouse. ``It will revamp re·vamp tr.v. re·vamped, re·vamp·ing, re·vamps 1. To patch up or restore; renovate. 2. To revise or reconstruct (a manuscript, for example). 3. To vamp (a shoe) anew. n. that entire area,'' said Mayor Jim Ledford. ``It'll extend Poncitlan Square to Courson Park.'' One of the highlights of the project will be a new 13,500-square-foot senior center to be built on 3.5 acres south of Avenue Q-9 and east of Poncitlan Square. The new building will replace the 9,700-square-foot center built in 1955 immediately south of Courson Park. To finance the construction of the senior center and to pay for property acquisitions, the city will borrow $5 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The loan will be repaid over a period of 20 years through the annual Community Development Block Grant they city receives from HUD Hud (h  d), a pre-Qur'anic prophet of Islam. Hud unsuccessfully exhorted his South Arabian people, the Ad, to worship the One God. .
The city's redevelopment agency has acquired five of the 11 properties where the senior center will be located. In another action for the project, the city hired Lea Associates Inc. under a contract not to exceed $30,200, to provide updated appraisals of the properties needed to be acquired for the project. The city is working with the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Housing Development Corp., based in Rancho Cucamonga Rancho Cucamonga (răn`chō k 'kəmäng`gə), city (1990 pop. 101,409), San Bernardino co., S Calif. , on the project. The
corporation has worked with the city in the past to refurbish re·fur·bish tr.v. re·fur·bished, re·fur·bish·ing, re·fur·bish·es To make clean, bright, or fresh again; renovate. re·fur more than 290 downtown apartment units. The city's share of the project is to acquire the land and clear it, provide up to $1 million in street work and other site improvements, and finance the construction of the senior center. The city will lease the property to the corporation for $1 per year for 55 years. Jim Skeen, (661) 267-5743 james.skeen(at)dailynews.com |
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