With City Council Redistricting taking center stage for the last few weeks, it’s been kind of a slow month for local land use projects, but there have been two noteworthy developments reviewed by a couple of our local land use committees recently – one at 810 S. Wilton Place, discussed by the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council’s Land Use Committee on Tuesday, September 28, and one at 728 S. Hudson, considered by the Park Mile Specific Plan Design Review Board on Thursday, October 7.
810 S. Wilton Pl.
This project would replace a single-family home at 810 S. Wilton Place with a new 5-story, 17-unit apartment building, with one story of ground-level parking, and one underground parking level, as shown above. Among the 17 units, there would be 6 two-bedroom units, 3 one-bedroom units, and 8 studios. Three units will be reserved for various levels of low income tenants, and open space will consist of small balconies and a roof deck. There will be a total of 13 parking spaces.
During discussion after the developers’ initial presentation, Land Use Committee members expressed concerns about the building’s 56-foot height, the small number of trees currently included in the landscaping plan, the reduced parking (less than one space per unit), the lack of neighborhood context in the building rendering, as shown above, and the developers’ lack of outreach so far to nearby neighbors and neighborhood associations.
So based on these concerns, and the fact that the developers have time to work out some of the issues before a decision is needed, the committee voted unanimously to oppose the project as currently presented, pending neighborhood outreach, a reconfigured parking plan, facade changes, and a suggested increase in the number of affordable units in the project. The vote does leave the door open, however, for the developers to return for further consideration and discussion as the project continues to take shape.
728 S. Hudson Ave.
This project, which would be adjacent to a larger development planned for the former Farmers’ Insurance property along the Wilshire Blvd. side of this block (between Wilshire and 8th St., and Hudson and Rimpau), was reviewed by the Park Mile Design Review Board on Thursday, October. 7
According to the developers, the project would remove a current single family home (as shown above), at the Hudson address, and then replace it with a row of 6 duplexes stretching along the 8th St. side of the block, between Hudson and Rimpau (the new buildings would have new 8th St. addresses). The duplexes would feature “warm, inviting colors, combined with appropriately-scaled entries,” and other elements such as stone cladding, recessed windows, and a decorative frieze element along the top, to help them fit in with the general feel of the single family Brookside neighborhood south of 8th Street.
Project representative Chris Fortunato said the designers also want to keep the project landscaping aligned with the general character of the neighborhood, including street trees every 30 feet in a 10-foot wide parkway, then a 5-foot-wide sidewalk, and another 7-10 feet of planted landscape between the sidewalk and the building’s front patio space. Fortunato also noted, however, that the city has recommended that the developers instead widen 8th street, creating a new 13-foot wide sidewalk, with trees in planters sitting on hardscape instead of planted in the ground, a much more urban feel than in the rest of the surrounding neighborhood.
In general, comments about the project from the DRB members were largely positive, with board member John LaBombard saying he “though it was really well done” and “a fantastic project generally.” And board member Michael Johnson said it looked like the developers “worked very hard to blend it in” with the surrounding neighborhood.
During public comment, however, a Brookside resident identified only as “Kate” during the meeting lamented the loss of the grand 100-year-old home that will be lost to may way for the development, and the installation of 12 units along the 8th street frontage, where there were none before, a big increase in density in the quiet single-family neighborhood.
However, another attendee, John Welborne, who was instrumental in the development of the Park Mile Specific Plan, which sets development rules for the block between 8th St and Wilshire, where this project will lie, explained that the PMSP zoning intentionally allows low-density multi-family development along the north side of 8th St., to provide an architectural buffer zone between the single family zone south of 8th St., and the much higher density office and residential buildings to the north on Wilshire Blvd.
DRB chair Caroline Labiner Moser said she would like to see a lighting plan before the board gives its final stamp of approval, but city representatives at the meeting cautioned against delaying the project by forcing the developers to come back to a second hearing.
So in the end, after some back and forth on how to word its position, the board eventually voted unanimously to approve the project as submitted, and to support the developers’ recommendation against widening the street and sidewalk hardscape. At the same time, though, Moser also urged the developers to provide the courtesy of returning with a lighting plan at some point, and to keep the board apprised of any design changes as the project progresses.
