A contentious proposal to construct new affordable housing in Venice has officially filed for review with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.

The project, which is being developed by Thomas Safran & Associates, calls for developing a 2.10-acre site 3233 S. Thatcher Avenue with 98 senior and family affordable apartments in a collection of buildings ranging between one and three stories in height.  Plans also call for a semi-subterranean parking garage to serve the development.

The subject property, known as the Thatcher Maintenance Yard, is one of 10 city-owned properties which were set aside in 2016 for the development of affordable and permanent supportive housing, the start of a broader push to address homelessness citywide.  However, the Thatcher project - located in the affluent Oxford Triangle neighborhood - has engendered significant pushback from surrounding residents.

The website Venice Update has chronicled a series of community meetings starting in 2017 between representatives of Thomas Safran & Associates and neighbors - which formed an organization known as the Oxford Triangle Association with the expressed purpose of opposing the development of "high-density affordable housing," at the Thatcher Yard site.  Though the group has succeeded in halting or reducing the project to single-family density, it has extracted other concessions including design changes and an increase in on-site parking from 68 spaces to 86 spaces.

Per Venice Update, TSA has tasked architect Steven Giannetti to design the proposed Thatcher Yard apartments.

The project will need to obtain a number of discretionary entitlements prior to starting construction.