Fresno condo project proceeds

Apartments could be converted with council approval.

By Russell Clemings / The Fresno Bee
(Updated Friday, August 19, 2005, 5:59 AM)

A San Diego developer has won tentative approval to convert a southeast Fresno apartment complex to condominiums — the fourth such project for the company in the city in two years.
United Development Group plans to convert the 106-unit Winery Estates complex on the northwest corner of McKinley and Winery avenues to condos that are expected to sell for $165,000 to $200,000 and bear association fees estimated at $200 per month.
The conversion was approved unanimously Wednesday night by the city's Planning Commission and awaits review by the City Council.
Two previous conversions by the same company — the former Villa Santa Fe complex at Huntington Boulevard and R Street and Emerald Estates at First Street and Pratt Avenue — won unanimous council approval. The company is also converting part of the Crystal Springs complex at Peach Avenue and Kings Canyon Road.
Under the city's condominium-conversion law, the Winery Estates project will offer lifetime leases to elderly tenants and extended leases to students who don't want to move or buy their units. Those who do move will be eligible for help finding new apartments.
That shouldn't be a problem, said commission Chairman Lee Brand, who said the commission had approved the construction of "probably 3,000 apartment units" over the past three years.
"If you convert everything over to condominiums, you solve one problem [by providing low-cost housing to buyers] and create another problem, because then you have a shortage of rental units," Brand said. "But that isn't the case here. … I think there's a good balance in the market right now."
The commission also approved plans for almost 600 new homes in five tracts, three of them in rapidly growing southeast Fresno.
Among them were two subdivisions proposed by Roseville-based Dunmore Homes, which plans to build 256 houses on about 67 acres between Armstrong and Temperance avenues north of Dakota Avenue, and 116 homes on about 39 acres north of Clinton Avenue between Armstrong and Temperance. The first will require City Council review because it entails rezoning from agriculture.
Also in southeast Fresno, the commission recommended rezoning and approved a subdivision map for 41 lots proposed by Dennis Bennett on about 11 acres along both sides of Church Avenue between Minnewawa and Peach avenues.
In northwest Fresno, on the southeast corner of Barstow Avenue and the future Veterans Boulevard, the commission approved a 105-lot tract on about 26 acres and recommended that the council approve rezoning for a project by Rexford Development of Encino.
Farther south, an 80-lot subdivision proposed by H&P Properties for 10 acres on the south side of Shields Avenue between Marks and Valentine avenues also won approval.
The commission also recommended that the City Council approve rezoning for less than 1 acre on H Street between Amador and Sacramento streets in downtown Fresno for Granville Homes, which plans apartments, offices and shops next to the Vagabond Lofts project, now under construction.