50 units slated for lot on Santa Monica Boulevard
By Sam Catanzaro
Over a year after Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz proposed a Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) parking lot in West Los Angeles as a potential location for permanent supportive housing, plans for just that have cleared a major hurdle after getting approval from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti.
Earlier this month, Weingart Center Association and Valued Housing were chosen to jointly lead an affordable housing development on a 10,500-square-foot property located at 11010 W. Santa Monica Boulevard. The proposal calls for 50 residential units.
The proposal from the developers is expected to cost $391,039 per unit – or about $19.5 million total. This is $138,961 below than the average cost per unit construction costs for the most recent of Measure HHH developments, which averaged $530,000 each.
Weingart Center Association and Valued Housing is requesting $7 million in Measure HHH funding.
Renderings show a five-story, contemporary low-rise building.
Some nearby residents and stakeholders have expressed concern about the proejct and lack of community input in the planning process.
“All of us see and understand the growing problem of homelessness in our city, it is a safety issue for all concerned. Solutions must work for residents, businesses and the homeless, too. Simply dropping a public housing facility in a city parking lot without regard to other’s needs is not the answer. The lot is desperately needed by area businesses for workers and visitors/clients/customers,” said Ed Engoron who has owned a nearby business for 33 years.
“The parcel is just over 10,000 square feet, forcing the project to have awkward and disruptive ingress and egress,” added resident Rohit Mehta. “While we would very much appreciate a speedy resolution and build-out of homeless supportive housing, I am concerned that in the haste to meet deadlines, there is a failure to meet the true needs of our community.”
On October 15 the project cleared a major hurdle after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed-off on approval on the development.
