Project Scrapped for Seniors Complex

Prominent Little Saigon developer Frank Jao withdrew plans for a 270-unit senior apartment complex behind Asian Village in Westminster after city planners expressed concerns about traffic.

About 100 neighbors of the proposed development attended a public hearing at City Hall on Wednesday night to voice their opposition to the complex, the Cultural Gardens Senior Apartments.

Only minutes before the scheduled discussion, Jao told city planning director Brian Fisk that he would stop the project.

A gated entry to the complex was to be on Sinclair Avenue, which is on the back side of Asian Village. Neighbors in the vicinity of the street said the project would bring unwanted traffic in an area already congested with visitors to Asian Village.

The plans had included nine three-story structures for rental living and the conversion of an existing commercial building into a community resource center.

A representative from Jao’s Bridgecreek Development Co. argued that the senior apartment complex would be the best use of the land and fill a community need. Company Vice President Kathy Buchoz said she had 500 people on a waiting list for the proposed complex.

Residents who came to the city’s Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night were poised for a fight. Instead, they were elated to hear that Jao had scrapped plans for the center.

“This is a case of the citizens of the city winning over big dollars,” said Bob Stevens, 68.

During a workshop on the proposal earlier in the day, Planning Commissioner Gary Soverns said the project was in an area of Orange County that already has plenty of high-density, low-income housing.

“North County is saturated with low-income housing,” he said. “This seems like a project that should be somewhere else.”

Buchoz said that delays caused by the Planning Commission were behind Jao’s decision to withdraw the project, especially the panel’s inquiries about the high number of units in the complex.

Jao, in a statement from the Bridgecreek Development Co. on Thursday, said: “The delay has caused me to miss the financing deadline; therefore, we requested to withdraw from the proposed senior housing project.”

Alex Murashko can be reached at (714) 966-5974.