Echo Park Mixed-Use Project Approved By LA Council Despite Criticism
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday gave the green light to a mixed-used development by Palisades Capital Partners that will bring hundreds of residences to a Sunset Boulevard site in Echo Park.
Palisades' plan to build a hotel and 737 housing units at 1111 Sunset Blvd. would bring the neighborhood's tallest towers to the property, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The plan proposes a 49-story tower, a 30-story tower, a 17-story building and some lower-rise structures at Sunset and Beaudry Avenue, in an area where Chinatown and Echo Park meet. Plans also leave room for Palisades to omit the hotel, raising the housing unit count to 827.
Although the project ultimately received approval, it is not without its criticisms.
Among them is the fact that the project will create 76 affordable units, which future neighbors saw as too low and out of alignment with the existing community.
“We definitely view it as another megadevelopment that’s not community-serving,” said Patrick Chen, an organizer with Chinatown Community for Equitable Development.
CCED has also organized to fight College Station, near the Chinatown light rail station, with similar complaints about that development. Chinatown's population is and has long been lower-income and older compared to the city on average, and gentrification comes up in many if not all discussions about large-scale new projects in the neighborhood.
The site is occupied by the former headquarters of the Metropolitan Water District and was used by a church for years before Palisades bought the site. The development was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
