This is Affordable Housing?? A look at Oceana Apartments

On January 26th, AMCAL Multi-Housing held the grand opening of their latest affordable housing community, Oceana Apartments, in Huntington Beach, their 100th completed project.  Several public officials in attendance complimented the development as a model for future projects.  The 78-unit workforce housing complex was developed from a vision by the city to transform Beach Boulevard from a rag-tag collection of various uses, intensities and styles, with numerous driveway cuts, into a well-organized vision of urbanization, called the Beach-Edinger Specific Plan.  Creation of urban housing, as well as redeveloped commercial and office developments, would breathe life and economic vitality into the spine of the city.

Our project includes one level of at-grade podium parking with three levels of Type V flats above.  The city requested a contemporary architectural style (demanding no Spanish-Mediterranean style) for the project and was very hands-on during the design phase.  The project wraps itself around three courtyard spaces and includes an area for public access, resident gathering, and a tot lot.  The main lobby, offices and an extensive community center that includes common facilities, a kitchen, and a computer lab can all be found at street level which enlivens the streetscape.

Designed to meet the funding requirements of the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (TCAC), 30% of units are three bedrooms with the remainder split between one and two bedrooms.  The project was funded by a variety of sources, including a unique participation from TriPointe Homes.  They developed a nearby community of single-family homes on a former school site, and in-lieu affordable housing funds from that project were contributed towards Oceana.

During Oceana’s development, another nearby project of greater intensity was under construction that caused an uprising among local residents.  This resulted in a moratorium on new development within the Specific Plan area.  Since then, revisions to the plan including extraordinary development criteria, have made redevelopment of these sites difficult and the vision for the Boulevard largely dead–for now.

At Oceana, you can see that the project looks like a market-rate development.  It even has internally illuminated glass sculptures in the courtyard and over the grand stair.  The common space has a fun beach-y quality as does the environmental graphics.  Sunshades over the east, south and west walls mitigate the sun as well as provide visual interest.  The courtyards are south-oriented to allow light to access most units and to capture the coastal breeze.  The building’s railings, composed of laser-cut aluminum plate suggest air bubbles in the surf.

In a county that is largely built-out with a severe shortage of workforce housing, these kinds of infill developments require innovative solutions, architecturally, financially, and administratively (through entitlements).  It requires a close relationship between all the players, but in the end, can be especially rewarding.