A plan to bring a mixed-use apartment complex to a corner lot in Boyle Heights faces a test next week: an appeal to the East L.A. Area Planning Commission.

The project from Tiao Properties, approved in August by the Planning Departments, calls for redeveloping a single-story commercial building at 2115-2123 Cesar E. Chavez Avenue with a six-story building that would feature 50 studio, one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments above roughly 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and subterranean parking.

2115-2123 Cesar E Chavez AvenueGoogle Street View

As a condition of approval, five of the proposed apartments would be set aside as affordable housing at the extremely low-income level.

Bittoni Architects remains the design firm attached to the project, which has done away with the contemporary design presented earlier this year in favor of a brick exterior in the vein of a pre-war apartment building. Plans for a rooftop deck are retained from the earlier iteration of the design.

The appellant, listed as Viva Padilla along with the neighboring book store RE/Arte Centro Literario, argues that the project is not compliant with the Boyle Heights Community Plan or the California Environmental Quality Act. Additionally, the appeal contends that the project does not provide sufficient affordable housing and did not incorporate community input. A staff response recommends denial of the appeal, citing a lack of evidence to support its arguments.

The appeal is slated to be heard at the November 8 meeting of the Area Planning Commission.

2115-2123 Cesar E Chavez AvenueGoogle Maps

The development site is located two blocks west of the intersection of Cesar Chavez and Soto Street, where Abode Communities has recently developed a mixed-use project featuring 76 units of affordable and supportive housing with community-serving commercial space, and has plans for a larger 111-unit development on a Metro-owned site one block to the east.

More recently, a proposal from Toledo Capital Development, LLC has emerged which would bring an art museum and affordable housing to another site near the intersection of Chicago Street and Cesar E. Chavez Avenue. The proposed development at 2141 Cesar Chavez could include buildings as tall as 10 stories.

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