LA City Council Looks to Facilitate High-Rise Development in Downtown

High rises along Figueroa Street

Recently, many Downtown Los Angeles stakeholders have lamented the low-rise building boom which has swept through the neighborhood.  Parcels entitled for high-rise developments are instead giving birth to squat, wood framed apartment buildings.  While these mixed-use projects bring more residents to the neighborhood and eliminate pedestrian dead zones, do they truly meet the standard of "highest and best use?"  This is a neighborhood with ample transit connectivity and little opposition to high-rise development.  At this critical juncture in Downtown's rebirth, many worry that the neighborhood is not on trajectory to reach its full potential.

Luckily, LA's elected officials have not been deaf to these concerns.  Yesterday, 14th District Councilman Jose Huizar introduced a motion that may help solve the problem.  Councilman Huizar's motion proposes that the Department of City Planning look to incentivize high-rise construction in Downtown through a variety of measures, including:

...streamlined entitlement processing; mixed zones; floor area bonuses; expedited site plan review or waiver of site plan review for projects adhering to the adopted Downtown Design Guidelines; context-based reduction and/or elimination of parking regulations; by-right off-site parking; reductions on density limitations for hotels; programmatic environmental review; increased flexibility to meet open space requirements; greater opportunity for by-right development; and to expediently address issues of zoning and land use requirements that negatively affect the siting and development of hotels including conditional use permit requirements and limitations on the use of adaptive reuse provisions for hotels

These are the kinds of changes that developers and urban enthusiasts alike have been clamoring for.  Expedited site plan reviews and streamlined entitlement processing?  Eliminating parking requirements?  Somebody pinch me.

But wait, there's more!  Councilman Huizar's motion also includes an 18 month interim control ordinance that regulates the construction of wood framed Type III, IV and V buildings.  The temporary nature of this ordinance buys time for a more permanent fix when city finishes updating its zoning codes.  Anyway, here are the details:

1.  Zone 1: Prohibit Type III, IV or V construction on parcels fronting either side of Figueroa Street or Flower Street between Venice Blvd. and 7th Street, and on parcels fronting either side of any street between Georgia Street and Flower Street between Olympic and 7th Street near the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Pico Station and the 7th & Metro Station in Downtown Los Angeles;

2.  Zone 2: Prohibit Type III, IV, or V construction on any parcels fronting either side of any street from the eastern boundary of Zone 1 to the west side of Olive Street between Venice Blvd. and 7th Street, and within 1,000 feet of the portals of the Pershing Square transit station in Downtown Los Angeles when such developments consist of 60 percent or more (based on floor area) Type III, IV, or V construction.

3.  These restrictions shall exclude each of the following: parcels zoned 3:1 FAR when such developments would utilize less than 95 percent of allowable floor area prior to any floor area incentives or Transfer of Floor Area (TFAR); any adaptive reuse projects; any public works/public facilities projects; any remodeling, and/or any expansion of existing buildings when such expansions occur on the same parcel and constitute an expansion of less than 20% of the existing building size.

Here are the boundaries of Zone 1 and Zone 2, as described above:

Zone 1 is outlined in red.  Zone 2 is outlined in blue.

Councilman Huizar's language makes it clear that Zone 1 is meant to foster high-rise hotel developments around the LA Convention Center and Staples Center.  The city has actively sought 4,000 new hotel rooms surrounding the sports and entertainment district, in a bid to make the Convention Center more competitive.  Establishing project minimums for this area ensures that the remaining surface parking lots are not eaten up by low-rise apartment buildings.  The development incentives proposed by Huizar will hopefully lead to hotels filling those surface parking lots.

The under construction Avant Apartments at 1340 Figueroa are the exact type of project that Zone 1 would prevent.  While the Avant is far from the most heinous low-rise development in Downtown, it manages to take up a large swath of Figueroa directly across from the Convention Center.  That is valuable real estate that could have become desperately needed hotel space.

While Zone 1 prohibits low-rise construction, Zone 2 seeks to better manage it.  By limiting the amount of wood framed construction to no more than 60% of a development's FAR, it helps us to avoid fortress-like buildings such as Carmel Partners' 8th and Grand.

8th and Grand

Assuming Councilman Huizar's motion passes with the full City Council, I wonder what direction Downtown takes from here.  Part of the reason that we are seeing so many wood frame buildings springing up in Downtown is because that is what is most financially viable at this point in time.  Will developers be willing in incur the higher costs of building with concrete and steel, or will they begin looking to other parts of the city?  Are the development incentives proposed by the Councilman enough to convince developers to start thinking bigger?

For that matter, what happens to low-rise proposals within Zones 1 and 2 that are already in the development process?  Are their owners forced to start from scratch, or are their projects grandfathered in?

• Motion to Amend Downtown Community Plan and Zoning Code
• Is Downtown's Low-Rise Building Spree Hurting the Community? (LA Downtown News)

LA City Council to Explore Elimination of Rooftop Helipad Ordinance

Image credit: AC Martin Partners via the Architect's Newspaper

Newly instituted changes to Los Angeles' fire code have finally opened the door for iconic high-rise architecture, allowing for case-by-case exceptions to the onerous rooftop helipad mandate that has shaped the city's boxy, flat-topped skyline.  The first beneficiary of this rule change, Korean Airlines' 73-story Wilshire Grand Tower, is slated to become the West Coast's tallest building, featuring a dramatic spire that stretches 1,100 feet into the sky.  Now, a City Council motion introduced by Councilmember Jose Huizar seeks to break down additional barriers, calling on the Los Angeles Fire Department to evaluate whether or not the city's 40-year-old rooftop helipad ordinance is truly necessary.

Noting that Los Angeles is currently the only major American city with such a requirement for its high-rise buildings, the motion directs LAFD to draft a report that would determine if the rooftop helipad ordinance remains necessary in an era of improved construction technology and safety measures.  By reviewing the "codes, standards, best practices and regulations implemented in other large cities," LAFD could recommend changes or alternatives to current regulations that would facilitate architectural rooftops without compromising safety.

Los Angeles need only look 120 miles south to find another large city that underwent a similar debate.  During the 1980's, San Diego also weighed the potential for iconic towers against the spectre of fire safety.  In the wake of increasing criticism over its bland waterfront skyline, the San Diego City Council ultimately voted to repeal its rooftop helipad ordinance.  This change reflected a shift in attitude within the city's Fire Department, which acknowledged that helicopters were a relatively inefficient means of evacuation for high-rise buildings.  Since that point, San Diego has constructed a variety of office, hotel and residential towers with sculpted rooftops, including the obelisk-shaped One America Plaza.

Politicians and architecture enthusiasts alike have made similar complaints in Los Angeles, blaming the helipad ordinance for the city's "flat, uninspired rooflines."  Some fire safety experts have also questioned the wisdom of the helipad law, noting that the mandatory helicopter infrastructure is expensive to build but rarely used.  From a dollars and cents standpoint, other fire safety alternatives could prove to be more worthwhile investments.  Examples of such can be found in the the Pacific Design Center's Red Building, which was notably granted an exemption from Los Angeles County's helipad ordinance due to its pressurized elevator system.

• New High-Rise Buildings/Helipad Landing Facility/Fire-Life Safety (Los Angeles City Council)
• Huizar, LAFD Announce New Policy Allowing Iconic Rooflines... (Jose Huizar - CD14)
• Laws That Shaped L.A.: Why is the Los Angeles Skyline So Bland? (KCET)
• Helipad Rule Change May Bring San Diego Skyline a New Peak or Two (Los Angeles Times)
• Flat Roofs and Fire Safety: Pelli's Red Fin Rises Amid Helipad Debate (Curbed LA)