98-units of affordable housing coming to Venice
By Sam Catanzaro
The Venice Neighborhood Council’s (VNC) Land Use and Planning Committee (LUPC) approved a 98-unit housing project at the former City Yard on Thatcher Ave in the Oxford Triangle, May 2 by a 4-2 vote.
The applicants, Thomas Safran & Associates, want to redevelop the City-owned at 3233 Thatcher Avenue into 98 affordable rental units for seniors and families. The development would be a private-public partnership and would include multiple buildings ranging from one-three stories over a semi-terranean garage.
The approval by the LUPC is contingent on the following conditions:
The building of the projects is to be contingent on installing road blockage at Thatcher Yard before any work begins, including demolition. In addition, the haul route for pavement and soil removal, and the parking for the construction workers will all need to take place on the project side of the road barrier. If the City of Los Angeles does not approve the haul route on Princeton Avenue, the project will not be able to go forward.
Thomas Safran & Associate shall work with Harbor Crossing to make the Harbor Crossing exit into an entrance and exit.
Thomas Safran & Associates must maintain the street surface during demolition and construction and shall restore the street surface after the removal of the pavement and soil. In addition, the developer must shall restore the street surface after completion of construction
The Thatcher Maintenance Yard is one of 10 parcels of property owned by the City of Los Angeles that was set aside in 2016 for the construction of affordable and permanent supportive housing.
The Oxford Triangle Association, a group of Oxford Triangle residents and neighbors who oppose the development of any dense multi-family housing on the Thatcher Maintenance Yard has been successful in retaining more of a single-family look for the development after meeting with Thomas Safran & Associates (TSA) 11 times.
“TSA has worked closely with our community to modify the project to address various concerns with density, parking, height, traffic, access, security, property management and course of construction logistics,” the Oxford Triangle Association wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning. “The project you see now is the direct result of the Oxford Triangle neighbors input and essentially evolved into the current status in a meaningful way due to that collaboration. The project is much improved as a result and much more compatible with the surrounding neighborhood, where we live and raise our families.”
