Washington Market Update July '10

Details: Category: Local Development; Published on Saturday, 14 August 2010 16:08; Written by Dianne Lawrence

On July 6, the city planning department issued a notice of completion of the final environmental impact report (FEIR) for the new mixed-use development proposed for the Washington Square Market. While this document is one of developer Root 3’s final steps in the proposal process for the residential/commercial complex, there is no guarantee city engineers will certify the report and give the project the green light. Many neighbors have griped about the proposals in letters included in the report. With community integration, historic preservation and traffic leading the list of concerns, residents hope the city considers both options individually from each other, if any are approved at all.

The property at Washington Boulevard and 10th Ave. is 7.8 acres and is currently home to three buildings built in 1961, including a Googie-style coffee shop. The 114,000 square feet of rent-able space is anchored by an indoor swap meet and a grocery market. The two options being proposed simultaneously consist of A – a mix of 547 rental and for-sale residential units plus 106,800 square feet of commercial space and buildings reaching heights of up to 202 feet; and B – a total of 342 residential units plus 237,100 square feet of commercial space and building heights of up to 85 feet.
The property is within the West Adams-Baldwin Hills-Leimert Community Plan and its Community Design Overlay, the city’s General Plan Framework and the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency’s Mid-City Recovery Redevelopment Plan area. The new complex depends on numerous amendments to the aforementioned plans.
The West Adams Heritage Association is among the dissenters of the project because the project ignores it’s Arlington Heights location in terms of it’s out-of-character heights, aesthetics and shadowing of the adjacent St. Paul’s Catholic Church and Rectory.
Other commenter’s included representatives of the Avenues Neighborhood Watch and Association and resident Patricia Judice, who worries that the proposed project appears to be “an urban walled fortress, unfriendly, unwelcoming and disconnected.”
The city is soon expected to issue a public hearing notice on the matter.

To view the full version of the Final Environmental Impact Report visit http://cityplanning.lacity.org/EIR/WashingtonSq/Feir/issues/Final_EIR.pdf