Last week, the Los Angeles City Council signed off on a controversial proposal to redevelop a vacant lot near Metro's Chinatown Station with a large apartment complex.

The College Station development, which would rise at the intersection of Spring and College Streets, calls for the construction of a seven-story building featuring 725 residential units, 51,600 square feet of retail, and over 900 parking spaces.

Renderings depict a colorful podium-type building, designed by architecture firm Johnson Fain and landscape architecture firm Studio MLA.

The project from Atlas Capital Group is expected to be built over a period of 43 months, though a timeline has not been set for the project.

In a move that stirred controversy, the City Council approved College Station without the 37 units of very low-income affordable housing which had been recommended by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission in December 2018.  The Los Angeles Times reports that Councilmember Gil Cedillo, who represents Chinatown, has said that Atlas will instead contribute $2 million to a fund that goes toward the preservation and construction of affordable housing, and will also provide $500,000 over a period of 10 years to cover a rent increase at the Metro @ Chinatown Senior Lofts.

Other large developments on the horizon for Chinatown include a proposed mixed-use complex that could bring over 900 residential units to a narrow strip of land to the north of Los Angeles State Historic Park.