Los Angeles Arts District Residents Resisting Plans for More Density

Catherine Saillant reports on "proposed guidelines that could add up to 1,500 residential units and potentially double the population of [the Arts District] community" in Los Angeles.

"Planners at City Hall have been working on the draft law for about a year, said Patricia Diefenderfer, a senior city planner. It would allow for residential projects that are not permitted today, she said." Saillant also writes: "Unveiled last month, the draft plan permits construction of apartment buildings that are taller and denser than the low-slung brick warehouses and vacant manufacturing plants that artists and gallery owners have converted into airy lofts and workspaces over three decades."

The "Arts District Draft Live/Work Interim Zone" [pdf], as it's called, has already sparked controversy during hearings with the Planning Department, according to the article. There's even a petition of opposition on Change.org.  The neighborhood to the east of the Downtown central business district and next to the Los Angeles River has seen an influx of high end retail and residential in recent years, but usually through adaptive reuse of historic industrial buildings.