Aged Housing

A county agency Wednesday advanced a plan by the group that stages the Grammy Awards to build a senior housing project for music-industry retirees in North Hollywood. Encore Hall, proposed for a site across from the subway station on Lankershim Boulevard, would have six stories of apartment units, with the ground floor reserved mostly for retail shops.

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.

The Los Angeles City Council gave its final planning approval Friday to a project to build 406 apartments for senior citizens on five acres adjacent to Valley Plaza Park, citing the growing demand for affordable housing in the San Fernando Valley. Valley Village II is a private development that will receive government tax subsidies so that the rents can be affordable to senior citizens, according to Dale Thrush, a spokesman for Councilman Joel Wachs.

The Ambassador Care board-and-care home, which was abruptly shut down by state officials Wednesday, had a history of health and safety violations, and was run by an operator who was ordered to close three other facilities this year, according to records and interviews Thursday. One of those facilities was the Acacia Inn in Pasadena, which the state Department of Social Services shut down in January on grounds that it was inadequately staffed and residents weren't given enough food.

State and county health authorities shut down a board-and-care home for suspected health and safety violations here Wednesday, forcing about 40 elderly residents to be relocated to other facilities. Residents at the Ambassador Care home at 10161 Hillhaven Ave. were not receiving proper care and the facility had been operating without a license since April, said Doug Harvey, a supervising investigator with the state Department of Social Services. "They were unlicensed and illegal," Harvey said.