The Bakersfield City Council has agreed to put $5.7 million toward low-income senior housing downtown.

Douglas McIsaac is the city’s community development director. He said the developer would use a $3.7 million city loan and a $1.9 million city grant along with millions in state funding to construct the 63-unit complex.

“It would start construction in July of this year, finish construction in April of 2016 and would be fully occupied by June,” McIsaac said.

Original plans called for 67 units east of 19th and R. The developer opted to put more two-bedroom units in the complex, boosting the bed count from 73 to 75.

“On most of the other projects that we’ve already done, there’s a waiting list already anyway,” councilman Terry Maxwell said. “To me, it’s more important that we get as many units possibly built as we possibly can.”

Maxwell said that he wasn’t a fan of the new plans and voted against the project. He was also not pleased about issues surrounding the project’s funding.

– Anthony Pollreisz