The Neighborhood News Online

Development On 10th and Washington

Details

Category: Community News

Published on Monday, 31 August 2009 22:12

Written by Mason Bendewald & Steve Wallis

Mee Semcken of Lee Consulting gave a presentation and updated the ANGELUS VISTA NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION and HARVARD HEIGHTS on the Washington Square Development project located on the South West Corner of Washington and 10th Ave. The proposed project is a mixed usage development with a combination of shops and residential units. Lee Consulting is working closely with neighborhood groups to make sure their voices are heard and are planning several more presentations as the project moves forward. Their next step is compiling an Environment Impact Report which will take into account a number of things including the impact of more traffic in the neighborhood. The redevelopment project will take 2 to 3 years to complete.

Meanwhile, they are putting together a draft EIR (Environmental Impact Report) to submit to the city with hopes to get it to the planning commission by the end of this year. They plan to submit 2 options with full analysis:

Option A:
Heavy on residential as opposed to commercial, featuring an 18 story condo tower, a condo building, rental units above commercial/retail spaces, and an LAPD substation featuring a 3,000 square foot community room. The breakdown would essentially be 550 residential units (130 rentals, 420 as condo), 110,000 square feet of commercial retail, restaurants and office space and 145,00 square feet of open space combined with parking.
The feedback they received in a March scope meeting with neighbors was that a lot of people did not like the height of the tower and did not want so much space given over to residential units, particularly rentals. Most people wanted more commercial/retail options.

Option B:
Tower is removed and commercial space is doubled to 250,000 square feet. Residential units number 342 units at a new height of 2 stories with the breakdown at 2/3 condo units, 1/3 rental.
They have found, however, that they have not had much success attracting bigger space users like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or Fresh and Easy Markets.
The next opportunity for greater public comment will be when the draft EIR comes out this summer.  Mee suggested that in the meantime we come up with a list of suggestions, questions, concerns etc, and she would be happy to come back to a Harvard Heights meeting to address them.

A couple of further details and points:
The condos would be 1-2 bedroom.
It was asked if there would be an owner-occupied requirement for all condos -not known at this time.
There are a number of traffic mitigations issues (such as cut-through traffic and parking) on the table and the developers are working with CD10 and DOT to address them.
Cities such as Los Angeles are being forced to add density. It was brought up that more residential spaces at this location might take some pressure off of the surrounding neighborhoods to add such density.
Officer Muy suggested that the developer consider putting the police substation in the middle of the complex and that all security cameras used be directly accessed by officers at the substation.

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