Condos One Step Closer to Making Home in Los Al

One of the largest Los Alamitos housing developments in recent memory took a big step forward at Monday night's City Council meeting.

Officials cast the first vote to change the city code to allow Seal Beach-based home builder the Olson Company to create 17 detached, single-family condominium units at 3271 Sausalito St.

The council is scheduled to take a final vote Dec. 17.

Click the PDF below the story's main image to see the proposed site plan, called Sausalito Walk.

According to the Olson Co.'s plan, each unit would be two stories tall and have a private two-car garage.

Each unit would have one of two floor plans: Plan 1, a 1,707 square-foot house with three bedrooms and 2.5 baths; Plan 2, a 1,914 square-foot house with four bedrooms, a loft and three baths. 

Councilwoman Gerri Graham-Mejia said she thought the home designs were beautiful and that people would buy them quickly.

“These aren’t going to last long on the market,” Graham-Mejia said.

The proposed construction site is a 1.53-acre plot near the intersection of Sausalito and Oak streets.

The land housed a business called Harbor Patterns in a building about 10,000 square feet, as well as a number of other structures which have been there since the '50s and '60s, according to Steven Mendoza, Los Alamitos community development director and public works director. 

“You may be familiar with this building," Mendoza said as he showed a slide of the structure on the property to the City Council. "(It's) a very under-utilized, under-developed site. Its use has probably run its course.”

Under the Olson Co.'s plan, the site would be razed in February. They would hold a grand opening of a model home in May and finish construction in December 2013.

According to staff, the land owner had originally considered converting the plot into a temporary storage facility.

Mayor Pro Tem Marilynn Poe said that she had spoken with residents of the Royal Oaks Mobile Home Park who said that they disapproved of the original plan.

“I know that they were not real happy with the idea of a storage facility there,” Poe said. “They have expressed personally to me that they're really much happier with this (new project.)”

Mendoza told the Council Monday that the project was one of the biggest housing developments to come to the more than 10,000-person city in recent years.

The most recent housing project was the construction of a four-unit apartment complex in 2011. 

“So this, in some sense, is also very exciting and also is, in some sense, a sign of the times,” Mendoza while giving a PowerPoint about the proposed project.

As part of the 5-0 vote to change the city code, the council also adopted a  “mitigated negative declaration” which found that the project would have little or no impact on the surrounding environment once the company repaired or "mitigated" any changes made during construction.

The second vote on whether to change the code to allow the Sausalito Walk project will take place Dec. 17.

Sausilto Walk Construction/ Operations Timeline (figures are estimates)

Rodent/pest eradication

1/22/13

Demolition & Site Grading

2/20/13

Storm Drain

2/27/13

Sewer

3/06/13

Model Foundation

3/13/13

Water

3/15/13

Dry Utilities

4/05/13

Curb & Gutter

4/11/13

Pave Streets

4/17/13

Model Construction

5/01/13

Grand Opening

5/09/13

Phase 1 Construction

7/31/13

Phase 2 Construction

10/07/13