Developers of the seven-story building proposed at 507 N. Larchmont have withdrawn the project. Late Wednesday afternoon neighborhood leaders opposing the project were notified that the project had been withdrawn by developers Sean Tabibian and Shawn Ebrahimian.
“On April 30, 2024, the Los Angeles City Planning Department received a letter from Shaw
Ebrahimian, who is a listed manager for 507 Larchmont LLC., requesting the withdrawal
of the Administrative Review of the Density Bonus application filed under Executive
Directive 1,” wrote Jane Choi, Principal City Planner in a letter shared with the Buzz.
“This is a victory for the neighborhood,” Larchmont resident Sam Uretsky told the Buzz.
In an email to neighbors, Uretsky wrote, “Congratulations to all of you for all your hard work, letter writing, meeting attendance and advocacy for Larchmont fighting the ED1 project proposed for 507 N. Larchmont!” Uretsky had organized over 80 neighbors to attend the Land Use Committee meeting of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council last week and express their opposition to the project.
“We want to express our gratitude for the combined efforts and hard work of our partners, including the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council’s Land Use Committee, the Larchmont Chronicle, the Larchmont Buzz, and most especially our neighbors in Larchmont Village, Hancock Park, and our own Windsor Square,” wrote Larry Guzin, President of the Windsor Square Association in an email to residents. “We came together with the Mayor’s Office to see that the proposed project was wrong. Wrong under the law of ED1 and wrong for our community.
“We decided after the meeting with the neighborhood council and listening to the community, to scale the project down to 40 units and lower the height to five stories,” Sean Tabibian told the Buzz. “We are going to redesign the project and resubmit it under the ED1 Directive as a 100% affordable housing project.”
“We are going to try to make it work so the neighbors are less stressed out,” said Tabibian though he’s not entirely sure it will work financially.
“We are part of the neighborhood, we want happy neighbors and we want people to be satisfied with the project,” he said. “This is costing us a lot of money because we have to redesign it but we are going to do it. We want to respond to the community in a favorable way.”
Rite Aid Renews Larchmont Blvd Lease
A reliable source told the Buzz that Rite Aid Drugstore has renewed its lease on Larchmont Blvd. Neighbors were wondering when the company declared bankruptcy and announced plans to close stores around the country as part of its financial restructuring plan. Even though the shelves in the store are not always fully stocked, the company is committed to keeping the Larchmont store open.
The work that Sam & the neighbors have done – bravo. As for the developer at that zoom meeting last week and project maybe this or that or it could have been a homeless shelter, To Sam and his neighborhood group, well done sir.
Yes, Rite Aid… has a bit of going out of business feel with its reduced inventory and some shelves with rows of gallon jugs of water. Interesting/sad to know why they had to file for bankruptcy.