WATTS — Redevelopment of the Jordan Downs housing project has been a goal of the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles for several years, but officials say plans are finally under way.

With the purchase of an additional 21 acres of land adjacent to the existing property, a master planner and a community advisory committee, hopes are high for what is expected be a new “urban village.”

Jordan Downs, which sits on 49.4 acres of land, houses 700 bunker-style units and approximately 2,300 residents. The redevelopment will include a one-for-one replacement of those housing units, and an expansion to accommodate an additional 1,400 units, which will be divided between the existing property and the 21 acres of land purchased last April by HACLA for $31 million. Millions more have been earmarked for planning.

Of the 2,100 units, approximately 700 will be for workforce housing units and another 700 will be for market rate homeownership units. “In addition to the 2,100 units,” said a HACLA report, “there will be mixed use opportunities with retail services, high-tech light industrial, educational and recreational facilities, as well as enhanced community programs.”

Once all of the land has been combined, the Jordan Downs community will sit on 99.74 acres of land.

In November, the estimated cost of the redevelopment was between $500- to $700 million. Today that figure has been raised to $1 billion, which John King, HACLA’s director of Planning and Intergovernmental Affairs, hopes to gather through “a lot of public [and] private partnerships, low-income tax credits, Hope 6 dollars and a combination of funding sources,” such as federal redevelopment money.

L.A. Councilwoman Janice Hahn left for Washington on Tuesday to meet U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about the possibility of using federal economic stimulus dollars on the project. Officials expect to break ground in the next two years once funds have been collected, design plans have been finalized and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determines that there is no longer soil contamination at the site, which was discovered during a preliminary test a few years back. Construction, they say, will then take anywhere from 5 to 7 years.

“Right now we are in the master planning phase of the process — pre-development,” said King.

A meeting held Feb. 28. between residents, the housing authority and the master planner, WRT-Solomon, was the start of a six-month brainstorming process, in which residents are being asked to critique ideas for the plan and offer their own suggestions.

Concerns have ranged from safety, transportation, traffic and overflowing garbage.

It is the lack of safety, that has kept many businesses from even considering the territory, which has been claimed by rival gangs — most notably, the Grape Street Crips. Many of the private investments for the new redevelopment will come from retailers and developers of the market-rate housing.

To reduce crime in that particular area, “there will be a major screening process as we transfer residents into the new development” and the existing development, said Brown. “We are actually going to let the residents put together that screening process” with the help of HACLA and the L.A. Police Department.

Resident and Jordan Downs Community Advisory Committee member Keyon Johnson, 22, believes “the only way to successfully tackle crime is to attack it now before they start the bricks and mortar of the project,” he said. “The social aspect is now. The part of cleaning up the drugs and the gangs and the shooting is now because you don’t want to build and put the same problems in new buildings. If [they] don’t attack the problem now that’s definitely what [they] are going to do.”

Johnson added that a lot of crime occurs because there is no relationship between the LAPD and the community.

“They bring over these new police officers, they rotate police officers. I feel that we need … the same units out on the street,” he said. “That way they know who is not from over there, they know who’s over there, they know people’s situations and people are more conscious of doing things when they know police officers know their names or know them personally.”

Johnson also suggested having police officers on site to frequently patrol the perimeter.

According to Eric Brown, Hahn’s deputy chief of staff, the biggest concern Jordan Downs residents have is being displaced during the process.

“Our plan is to build first, move the current residents over and then build on the land that they are living on now,” said Brown.

As for recreation and amenities, residents have requested a gym, bicycle lanes, an on-site grocery store, a solar-powered lighting system and a greenhouse where residents can grown their own vegetables.

But Johnson sees these things coming to fruition only if the housing authority and the residents meet in the middle.

“I just want part of what the residents are asking for to be reflected in the plan and I hope they don’t promise something that they can’t deliver,” he said, adding that in turn, “I want the residents to understand that if they want a safe place and a nice place to stay in, there are going to be rules and there will be criteria changes. And we just want people to understand and abide by them because we want everyone to be good neighbors and hold everyone accountable.”