A luxury eight-story apartment building with 53-units is proposed to rise at 1100 –1108 W. Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, southwest corner of Beaudry Avenue and Temple Street. The site covers approximately 15,764 square feet. Project still needs approval from the Los Angeles City Planning Department to start moving through the city development pipeline.

The tall building would front Beaudry Avenue with a width of 35-feet; on Temple Street, there is also an access to the lobby and small plaza. Two vehicular entrances on Angelina Street, a short cul-de-sac, proceed to the first three levels of onsite parking. The ascending five levels are residential, plus the eighth-floor deck allows for a swimming pool and other amenities. The total proposed floor area of the building extends 47, 264 square feet.

 The side of the building free of balconies facing the Hollywood freeway along Temple Street appears like an office-building while the sides with units including balconies view Angelina Street and the downtown high rises.

The 53-unit project includes 13 studios, 30 one-bedroom and 10 two-bedroom apartments. Project is utilizing a Density Bonus that includes 10% affordable units for very-low income households. That is, 4-units are reserved for persons or families whose annual earnings are not above 50% of the median annual income, based on the Los Angeles Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. The affordable unit-size varies depending on the number of members in the household.

 “A family of two can not earns more than a combined income of $36,000,” said Dana Sayles representative for 1100 West Temple Investors, LLC, “and all other units will be rented at the going rate at the time of rental.”

Periodically, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) determines and publishes the median annual income. Qualifying low-income renters may obtain more information on affordable units through the Los Angeles Housing and Investment Department (HCID-LA).

Developers presented project several times to the Echo Park Neighborhood Council--- Planning and Land Use Committee (PLUC) and to the Echo Park Improvement Association (EPIA) for feedback and letters of support. At the last presentation, the original pearl-like tint of the building changed to a light grey-on-grey shade. This change would perhaps provide more efficient maintenance considering the project’s location near freeways. Also, the entry on Temple Street was added.

Project sits in area included in the Central City West Specific Plan (CCWSP), which describes in Appendix C that Beaudry Avenue be improved to have an 80-foot roadway, with three travel lanes in each direction… Accordingly, this site is required to provide a 20-foot dedication (reduction of private land for city purposes) to widen Beaudry Avenue.

This year, both community groups wrote letters in support of this project to the Los Angeles City Planning Department, and included among other things a partial waiver to provide for a 15-foot dedication and improvement instead of the otherwise required 20-foot dedication on Beaudry Avenue.

According to representative Sayles for LLC, the 15-foot dedication would to be consistent with the adjacent property to the south running from Angelina to First Street.

The multi-family residence will replace a vacant food stand, an existing auto repair garage including two billboard signs hovering over the 1940s structures. These are the last standing one-story businesses of a former era. In the 1970s, the old mixed-use zone of commercial and residential dwellings of bungalows, courts, and apartments of the early 1900s started to be replaced by new development and parking lots on Beaudry Avenue from Temple to First Street and along Temple Street from Figueroa to Beaudry.

This site has seen a lot of construction of 1-story, small structures for various commercial and residential uses dating far earlier than 1912. During this year a wooden real estate office 20 ft. by 18 ft. was built in front of an existing house with a floor area of 26 ft. by 28 ft. In 1947 a 100 sq. ft. hot dog stand opened fronting Beaudry Avenue. Almost three decades later, in 1948, a new retail building went up, and in 1949 a service station was set up to operate with a floor area of 12 ft. by 15 ft. In the same year, a change of use certificate was issued for the existing auto repair garage, per city records.

 In contrast, more than a century later, the new 8-stories development of 86-feet-6-inches would be the highest apartment building west of Beaudry Avenue on Temple Street. There exist other massive apartment buildings on Temple with far more units, but only rise to four or five stories. Thus, this project would bring a new character to this rapidly developing area.

Connie Acosta is co-chair of the Planning and Land Use Committee of the Echo Park Neighborhood Council and a member of the Los Angeles Press Club.