A rendering of the proposed 160-unit building that could be built at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Vernon Street in Central Long Beach.

The Planning Commission gave preliminary approval Thursday night to a housing development that could bring 160 new units for seniors to Long Beach.

The proposed six-story development would add a mix of studios (58), one-bedrooms (82) and two-bedrooms (20) for “active seniors” who are at least 55 years old. It would be built on city-owned parcels of land just south of Willow Street at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and East Vernon Street.

A field in the 2500 block of Atlantic Avenue is fenced off as it sits empty in Long Beach, Wednesday, Oct 4, 2023. The city-owned site could become the new home of a 160-unit senior apartment complex. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.

City Council members will still have to approve the merging of the nine city-owned parcels that will have to be combined to allow the project to move forward as well as the zoning changes to allow the dense, residential building to be built.

Twenty of the 160 units would be set aside for households with “very-low incomes” based on the area median. For Los Angeles County, a household of one would have to make less than $44,150 to qualify and a two-person household could make as much as $50,450, according to state income limits.

Half of the affordable units will be one-bedrooms. Seven will be studios, and three will be two-bedrooms. The rest of the 160 units would be set at market-rate prices, according to plans submitted to the city.

While leasing of the market rate units would be managed through a company not yet hired by the developer, the affordable unit applications would be managed by the city. Christopher Koontz, the director of the recently renamed Community Development Department, said that there would be a public notice of the units being available. Applicants would then have to go through a lottery process to lease them.

“So, it’s not first-come, first-served,” Koontz told the commission Thursday.

Koontz added that the project had “a couple of decades behind it” in terms of how long the city had sought a developer for the site.

Jason Ruiz covers City Hall and politics for the Long Beach Post. Reach him at [email protected] or @JasonRuiz_LB on Twitter.