A plan to allow denser residential development along a section of the Expo Line in the Westside was approved Tuesday by a Los Angeles City Council Committee.
The Exposition Corridor Transit Neighborhood Plan would affect development guidelines within a half-mile radius of five Expo Line stations between Culver City and Santa Monica by allowing taller mixed-use buildings on major streets, residential buildings and offices in industrial areas, and multi-family development in a neighborhood of about 200 single-family homes south of the Bundy station.
“I’m really thrilled that this plan is before us today … and what I like about this plan is that we are building more density in areas that historically haven’t accepted more density,” said Councilman Jose Huizar, who is chair of the Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
If approved by the full City Council, as many as 6,000 new housing units could result from the change, according to a city report.
Although the project aims to reduce auto congestion by encouraging residents to use the Expo Line, the Westside Neighborhood Council said in a statement it is opposed to the plan because it could backfire and lead to more traffic from “a localized population surge that is far more than the Exop Line can support, forcing people back into their cars and onto our already congested streets.”
The Palms Neighborhood Council issued a statement expressing its disappointment in Councilman Paul Koretz for introducing amendments opposing more housing and density along Pico and Exposition boulevards near the Sepulveda and Westwood/Rancho Park Expo Line stations and with “neighborhoods along Expo who oppose more housing under the pretense of density ruining neighborhood `character.”’
“These are modest increases in density along major commercial corridors,” the statement said. “It’s disingenuous to say that they will negatively impact the `character’ of the neighborhood.
“We are in the worst housing crisis in the history of our city. We all have to do our part to address the crisis and one community shouldn’t get a pass because of affluence and influence with a local official.”