Wesson Addresses Proposed Development Process

City Council President Herb Wesson was the guest speaker at our April 2018 OPNC Board Meeting. Stakeholders came out to express concern about a proposed development at 1180 S. La Brea. In the image below, the first picture shows the current building and the second picture shows the proposed building.

The project falls under the Transit Oriented Communities Development as it is located within a half mile of a transit stop and will qualify for a Density Bonus allowing it to be build 30% larger than allowed by current zoning. Project details:

• 67 Unit Mixed Used Apartment; Unlimited Height – proposed 75 ft/7 stories high
• Only 94 residential parking spots = residents & guests parking on streets
• Only 9 units are set aside for Low-Income housing. The rest will be market value.
• At least 2 commercial businesses, but only 18 parking spots for them = customers parking on streets. (and that does not address employee parking). This means that surrounding streets will have to apply for permit parking to protect their street parking. This is a long process and the onus of it should not be on residents.
• Parking access for the entire property will be on 12th street = vehicular traffic congestion at 12th and even more cut-through traffic on 12th, Highland, Citrus, Longwood, Tremaine.
• 24 months of construction starting Jan 2019 (current tenants were given August 2018 eviction). Construction vehicles and worker cars will be on the neighborhood streets.

Stakeholders were concerned not only about the project and parking issues but about the process by which this project was approved. In practical experience, the city does not notify residents about projects that fall within certain guidelines, which requires residents to be constantly on the alert doing research.

This particular project was not previously discussed at an OPNC meeting, but was discussed at a LANA meeting fall 2017. December 2017 City Planning indicated that the project was on hold due to neighborhood concerns, but by late January 2018 the developer submitted the project under the Transit Oriented Communities guidelines and got approval. The project is due to begin construction at the end of 2018.

Wesson agreed that this process was not in the best interest of the community and suggested quarterly meetings about land use proposals with OPNC, LANA and Country Club Park representatives in attendance.

The developer of this project will provide a presentation about it at our May 2018 OPNC Meeting.

Image provided by LANA