The Weingart Center, a provider of housing and services to Skid Row residents, is planning a high-rise development across from its Downtown L.A. headquarters.

According a case filing with the Department of City Planning, a current surface parking lot at 6th and San Pedro Streets is slated to give way for a 19-story mixed-use building feature 303 residential units - including 298 for very low income persons.  The ground-floor of the proposed tower would be occupied by nearly 20,000 square feet of commercial uses.

The project is likely being submitted at this point in time to preempt Measure S, a ballot initiative that up for consideration on March 7 that would prevent the city from granting general plan amendments, zone changes and other variances to individual property owners.  Although the measure was rewritten to allow zone changes and variances for 100 percent affordable developments, general plan amendments are still disallowed.  The Weingart Center's proposed tower - as well as similar projects from Skid Row Housing Trust - requires a general plan amendment.

This would become the largest ground-up development in recent memory for this section of Downtown, eclipsing a proposed 14-story building on 5th Street.  Affordable housing complexes more often use lower-cost wood-frame construction, which is capped at seven stories inclusive of a concrete podium.

In 2015, Weingart announced plans for a similar 14-story development on a property next-door to its headquarters building.