The L.A. City Council’s May 29 decision to allow rezoning of a Westside tract of industrial land for a 309-unit apartment project has ignited a squabble over whether jobs or housing should get preference as the supply of developable land dwindles.
Critics say the project will cost hundreds of jobs and sets a dangerous precedent that will unleash a torrent of similar rezoning applications.
Fueling the friction is that the council’s approval came despite the city Planning Commission and the council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee both strongly recommending that the apartment project be rejected.
“The planning department is certainly not unaware of the housing shortage problems in the city,” said Larry Friedman, senior city planner. “We felt the need to protect industrial land outweighs the importance of changing that land to permit housing.”
In an unusual move, all seven of the city’s planning commissioners wrote a letter to the City Council citing reasons why the Avalon del Rey project should not be approved, and three commissioners came to the PLUM committee to testify against the project.
They argued that industrial uses often characterized by loud noises, heavy truck traffic, 24-hour operations and environmental risks are incompatible with residential uses.
Meanwhile, the 4.5-acre Avalon del Rey project site sits amid an otherwise active 150-acre industrial zone north of Playa Vista.
Miscikowski, the sole council member to vote against the project, attributed the Avalon del Rey approval to support from the Sixth District’s council member, council President Ruth Galanter. Council members typically do not vote against the person representing the district in which a project site is located.
Galanter could not be reached for comment last week.
The Avalon del Rey project which Alexandria, Va.-based AvalonBay Communities Inc. plans to build on the site at 5535 Westlawn Ave. has been in the works for two and a half years. It is scheduled to break ground in the first quarter of 2002, said Lawrence Scott, vice president of development at AvalonBay Communities’ Newport Beach office.
Supporters of the project said that Angelenos need to re-think the city’s long-held limitations on residential development as the housing shortage grows.
“We as a city need to think more of building housing where people work, so we can give more people an opportunity not to have to use cars,” said council member Mike Hernandez.
