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By Bianca Barragan for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

A Hollywood development that would face the sad, unfinished shell of a Target at Sunset Boulevard and Western Avenue is jumping forward with the release of its final environmental impact report.

The report details developer Reliable Properties’s plans for the two-acre site at the intersection’s northwest corner. Those plans include a six-story building that, if ultimately approved by the city, would bring 293 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments to the neighborhood, plus 33,000 square feet of commercial space along the street. (Fifteen of the apartments will be available to very low-income tenants.)

Construction on this Withee Malcolm Architects-designed project, called SunWest, is expected to take about two years, though a start date hasn’t been announced.

The SunWest project will have company at the Sunset and Western intersection. Another project is slated for the southeast corner of the block, currently occupied by a Food 4 Less market. That project would bring nearly another 800 apartments to the neighborhood.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

Are homes in Santa Monica getting too big? Local officials think so, and in a Tuesday meeting that lasted into the early hours of Wednesday morning, the City Council approved a new bill that temporarily limits the size of new single-family residences.

The average floor area of newly built homes in the city is around 5,000 square feet—more than twice the size of the typical American house, according to a city report. In Santa Monica, where cozy bungalows once dominated the landscape, staff estimates that existing homes are up to three times smaller than what’s being constructed today.

Mayor Ted Winterer said the rules were “in direct response to resident concerns” and would help preserve “the diversity and uniqueness of our residential neighborhoods.”

The new rules will go into effect in February and will last until at least May, though they could be extended up to five years. They will limit the height of new homes in single-family neighborhoods to 28 feet and ensure those residences don’t take up more than half the lot they sit on.

Additional restrictions would limit square footage on the second floor of new homes and keep down the size of balconies and upper level decks.

While the interim policy is in effect, the city plans to craft new design guidelines regulating development of new single-family homes going forward.

Some residents complained that they had been blindsided by the new rules and that their plans for building new properties would be dashed by the policy.

“We’re building a home that’s similar, if not smaller than our neighbor’s,” resident Horace Hertz told the council. He said that the new rules would require a change in the design of his new home, resulting in a “significant loss in value.”

Other residents said that larger homes are threatening the character of lower-slung residential neighborhoods, many of which are filled with historic homes overshadowed—and in some cases replaced—by the new developments.

Resident Kit Dreyfuss said that most of the homes on her block had been replaced with new construction or “remodeled to the point of being unrecognizable.”

City staff reported that property owners apply for roughly 70 demolition permits for single-family homes per year (around 40 end up being approved). Residences that replace these homes are typically around twice the size, according to staff.

“A small handful of developers and realtors are making themselves very wealthy, Zina Josephs told the council on behalf of Friends of Sunset Park. “Neighborhoods are losing their character.”

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

A row of single-family homes and a small triplex in Palms may soon be replaced with a six-story apartment complex, according to plans filed last week with the Los Angeles city planning department.

Located just off Venice Boulevard at 3739 South Cardiff Avenue, the project would add 74 new units of housing above an underground parking garage.

Property records show that the cluster of homes that would be razed to make way for the project were all purchased within the last year, and that an Ellis Act application was filed in February to remove the units in the triplex from the rental market.

Some of the apartments in the new building would be affordable, as the developer (listed as Frame DTCC, LLC) plans to take advantage of new incentives meant to spur the creation of affordable housing in areas close to transit stops. Less than two blocks from a bus stop, the project site is also roughly a half-mile from two different stops on Metro’s Expo Line.

It’s not clear yet exactly how many units would be affordable and what income level residents would need to earn in order to live in them.

It’s no Koreatown, but the Palms area has seen a bit of new development since the Expo Line extensionopened last year. Less than a mile from this project, another six-story complex is in the works near the Sony Pictures Studios lot. Yet another six-story development would bring 41 units to Overland Avenue.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

The lack of affordable housing in Los Angeles has become a difficult issue to ignore. With thousands of new units needed to meet demand (one recent study found a shortfall of 551,807 affordable residences), rents are rising steadily and many longtime residents feeling compelled to look for housing elsewhere.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin recently described the affordable housing shortage an “existential crisis” for the city—one that threatens the very concept of what Los Angeles is to many residents.

It’s not surprising, then, that the topic of housing dominated discussion at City Hall and beyond throughout the year.

Amid all the debate, several key pieces of legislation moved forward that could have major impacts on how affordable housing is built and maintained across the city.

Here are seven of the most significant developments:

1. Linkage Fees

Approved by the City Council just last week, these fees charged to developers are expected to produce up to $104.4 million per year that could be used to construct or maintain between 1,699 and 1,767 units of affordable housing annually.

What remains to be seen is the effect they’ll have on construction of new projects. Prior to the vote, some business groups argued that developers would simply stop building if the fees were imposed—though the fee structure settled on by the council was far leaner than what an economic report suggested could be charged.

The new ordinance will also take a while to produce funds for new housing. Thanks to a long phase-in, the full fees won’t be collected for another 16 months.

2. New incentives

Thanks to Measure JJJ, the ballot initiative approved by Los Angeles voters last year, new incentives went into effect this fall encouraging development of affordable housing close to transit stops.

The incentives vary based on the number and type of transit stops that are close to a project (bonus points for being less than 750 feet from a rail station), but reward developers for making a percentage of units available to low- or moderate-income renters.

So far, the incentives have proven fairly popular; since September, developers have filed plans for 13 projects that make use of them, according to Cheryl Getuiza, planning department spokesperson.

3. Preventing the loss of rent-controlled units

LA officials made it a bit harder for landlords to remove rent-controlled units from the housing market earlier this year.

Under new rules, property owners planning to tear down and replace buildings protected by the city’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance will have to make an equal number, or 20 percent (whichever is larger), of units in the new building affordable.

They’ll also have to provide annual updates to the city on the status of units pulled from the market through California’s Ellis Act, which allows landlords to evict tenants when demolishing buildings or undertaking condo conversions.

4. Fast-tracking projects for the homeless

In August, the planning department proposed new guidelines for development of permanent supportive housing aimed at homeless and formerly homeless residents.

Under these rules, such projects would be subject to a streamlined review process that would save developers time and money.

Eligible projects (those containing only affordable units, with at least half set aside for homeless residents) would also benefit from rules allowing them to be more dense and have a bit less parking than similar market rate developments.

5. Funding projects for the homeless

Last year, Los Angeles voters approved $1.2 billion in funding for construction of 10,000 permanent supportive units over the next 10 years.

On Wednesday, construction began on the first of those projects. It’ll add 122 affordable units to a two-phase development in East Hollywood.

6. “Value Capture”

Measure JJJ placed new requirements on developers, mandating a percentage of affordable units for projects that go beyond the scope of what local zoning rules allow.

New rules passed by the council last week fill in a few gaps left by Measure JJJ and expand the number of projects that would be affected by these affordable housing requirements (developers seeking a conditional use permit or a height change permit would now be subject to them, for instance).

The new ordinance also ensures that developments replacing previous apartment or condo buildings add more units than they take away.

7. Measure H

LA County residents committed new resources to the fight against rising levels of homelessness when they approved Measure H in March. Among the 47 strategies that the measure will fund are the development of new short-term housing facilities that will keep people sheltered while they are looking for a permanent residence and a rapid rehousing program that provides badly needed rental assistance to those who might otherwise be forced onto the street.

By Elijah Chiland for Curbed Los Angeles | Read the original article here

In the works for over a decade, a major overhaul planned for the 44-acre Manhattan Village Shopping Center in Manhattan Beach may be on its way to fruition.

The Daily Breeze reports that a lawsuit filed by opponents of the project in 2014 was settled earlier this month, after the city approved alternate construction plans in June. A separate appeal of the project from neighboring businesses was rejected by the Manhattan Beach City Council last week.

With these challenges out of the way, the redevelopment—which is expected to be complete by 2020—can get underway.

The planned renovations will transform the northern and central portions of the shopping mall, razing more than 70,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space to make way for 194,644 square feet of new construction.

Developer RREEF plans to give the mall a more free-flowing feel, with a “village” of open-air shops connecting visitors to the enclosed portion of the mall. Major updates include an expansion of the Macy’s store on site and the demolition and relocation of a California Pizza Kitchen.

Plans also call for a lot more parking, with new on-site lots providing between 463 and 749 new spaces.

The Manhattan Beach City Council initially approved the project three years ago, but appeals and other delays have held up work on the mall’s big update.