A stretch of vacant land in Leimert Park may be redeveloped into below-market housing with ground-floor commercial space, adding homes on a corridor where affordability remains a major challenge.
The proposal centers on a five-story building along South Crenshaw Boulevard that would include income-restricted apartments.
Here's what to know
City planning officials have received an application from an affiliate of Venice Community Housing to redevelop 4345 South Crenshaw Boulevard, according to Urbanize Los Angeles.
Under the plans, the site would contain 56 residential units, 1,972 square feet of retail at street level, and 11 parking spaces.
All but one of the apartments would be income-restricted, with the remaining unit reserved for an on-site manager. The housing would be designated for low- and moderate-income tenants, adding to the limited stock of deed-restricted units in Los Angeles.
The developer is pursuing affordable housing incentives and a faster approval track through Los Angeles' Executive Directive 1, which is designed to accelerate projects that qualify under the city's affordability rules.
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More background
Los Angeles is under pressure to add a substantial number of homes by 2029.
By 2029, Los Angeles is required to plan for 456,643 additional housing units, 184,721 of them affordable.
Affordable units made up about 21% of all apartments completed in Greater Los Angeles between 2020 and 2024. More than 9,400 such homes were built during that span, up 79.5% from 2015 through 2019.
About 35,000 units had been proposed under ED1, and roughly 29,000 had already been approved.
It would turn a vacant parcel that once held a commercial building into homes and neighborhood retail, adding housing and activity on an already developed site instead of leaving the lot unused.
What's being done?
Elsewhere on the Westside, the nonprofit is pushing ahead with its Venice Dell project, which the report said would bring 120 apartments and ground-floor retail to a 2.7-acre parking lot in Venice.
The group is constructing a seven-story affordable housing development in Santa Monica with 78 units.
At the city level, programs such as Executive Directive 1 and affordable housing bonus incentives are intended to make that work easier by reducing some review barriers for projects that meet affordability standards.
If approved, the Crenshaw Boulevard project would add 56 apartments to that pipeline while bringing retail back to the street.
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