45 apartments proposed for empty lot in K-Town

An empty lot located two blocks northeast of the Wilshire/Vermont subway station in Koreatown is primed for redevelopment with apartments.

Earlier this month, the Larchmont-based entity Villas at Westmoreland, LLC submitted an application to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning seeking approvals to construct a seven-story, 45-unit apartment building at 430 S. Westmoreland Avenue. The proposed project, which would rise on a site previously developed with a single-family home, would also include 34 parking stalls in a partially subterranean garage.

Requested entitlements include density bonus incentives to permit greater floor area and height than allowed by zoning regulations, as well as a waiver of development standards relating projects abutting R1 zones. In exchange, 13 of the proposed apartments would be set aside as deed-restricted affordable housing at the low-income level.

Additionally, the applicant has requested streamlined permitting through the state legislation SB 35. According to findings included with the application, the project is eligible for the bill's streamlining provisions, as it would set aside 50 percent of the site's base density (26 residential units) as deed-restricted affordable housing.

California Development & Design, Inc. is the architect of the project, which is depicted in renderings as a contemporary podium-type building capped with an amenity deck and lined with cantilevered balconies. Plans call for a mix of one- and two-bedroom dwellings.

The project is one of a number of infill developments slated for properties surrounding Wilshire/Vermont Station, including a 40-story tower recently approved to rise one block southeast at 6th Street and Shatto Place. The property also sits just east of the L.A. County Department of Mental Health's headquarters, which is poised to add affordable and market-rate housing through a public-private partnership with a group of private developers.

• Koreatown (Urbanize LA)