At its meeting on January 11, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission voted to uphold approvals for a proposed apartment tower on La Cienega Boulevard, rejecting four appeals which sought to block the project's construction.

Last September, the Planning Department issued a letter of determination signing off on plans from Carmel Partners which would bring a 24-story building featuring 290 apartments to a vacant property located at 1050 S. La Cienega Boulevard - just south of Beverly Hills city limits. The project would also include 4,100 square feet of ground-floor retail and parking for 412 vehicles in a podium garage and below-grade levels.

Street-level view of 1050 La Cienega looking southeastSCB

Project entitlements include Transit Oriented Communities incentives permitting greater density than would otherwise be allowed by zoning rules. In exchange, 29 of the new apartments would be set aside as deed-restricted affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.

Solomon Cordwell Buenz is designing 1050 La Cienega, which would be the largest structure in the near vicinity at 271 feet in height. However, that is shorter than the original 28-story profile of the building, which has also seen the tower mass relocated to the southern edge of the site since originally filed for entitlements in 2022.

The appellants - the coalition of labor unions CREED LA, Friends of South Carthay, and nearby residents Andrew Marton and Elana Shrira - lodged several complaints in arguing that entitlements for the project should be overturned. CREED LA, which is not an immediate neighbor and thus unable to appeal TOC determinations, argued that the project would have unstudied environmental impacts, and objected to the adoption of a Sustainable Communities Environmental Assessment for 1050 La Cienega prior to the issuance of entitlements. The other appellants, all adjoining residents, argued that the incentives granted to the project were unnecessary to accommodate additional affordable housing, and also alleged insufficient environmental review.

1050 S La Cienega BoulevardGoogle Maps

A staff report, finding no evidence to support granting the appeals, recommended denial in all four cases.

The project is the latest in a string of high-rise developments in Los Angeles from Carmel Partners, following a 35-story high-rise now taking shape in the Arts District and similar towers which have already debuted in West Adams and Downtown. Closer to the ground, Carmel is planning three big residential projects in Sawtelle and new apartments in Long Beach

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