The streamlined processing offered by the Mayor's Executive Directive 1 has been used on roughly 100 applications accounting for more than 7,000 potential units of affordable and permanent supportive housing. However, none are quiet like a project filed for review earlier this month in Boyle Heights.

On October 5, Toledo Capital Development, LLC submitted an application to the Planning Department seeking approvals for a mixed-use affordable housing complex at 2141 E. Cesar Chavez Avenue. But while most mixed-use developments combine commercial uses and housing under a single roof, Toledo's proposed development would introduce a different type of use: an art museum.

Street-level view looking northToledo Capital Development LLC

The project, dubbed Xola, would include two buildings. At the rear of the property, plans call for a  10-story, 126-foot-tall residential building featuring 19 one-, two-, and three-bedroom dwellings, all of which would be reserved for moderate-, low-, and very low-income households. At the front, facing Cesar Chavez Avenue, plans call for a smaller six-story, 96-foot-tall structure which would contain the proposed museum.

Mexican architect Tatiana Bilbao is designing the complex, which would rise from a relatively compact site totaling just 7,670 square feet. Plans show buildings clad in glass and clay brick, with amenity decks at both rooftops and a courtyard breezeway at street level.

2141 E Cesar Chavez AvenueToledo Capital Development LLC

A project page from the Toledo Development website indicates that the museum would be dedicated to Chicano art.

The Xola development is one of a handful of ED1 projects pitched for the Boyle Heights neighborhood, including a proposed 51-unit complex near 1st and Soto Streets. The community has also started to see a handful of proposals for mixed-income and market-rate projects - including a 50-unit building which would rise from a neighboring site to the west at 2115 E. Cesar Chavez Avenue.

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