Plans to redevelop a portion of the former MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte with housing are being cut back, according to a new environmental report.

In 2022, the City of El Monte signed off on Esperanza Village, a project from Prima Development slated for the eastern 8.2 acres of the former foster youth shelter. Plans called for the construction of up to 340 residential units, 40,000 square feet of space for use by Los Angeles County, community-serving medical space, and parking. As an unrelated project, the western 5.6 acres of the property were to be converted into a public park.

Two years later, the amount of housing now planned for the MacLaren Site has been cut by 68 percent. A revised project calls for 202 total homes - including 102 units for families and 100 units for seniors - as well as a new two-story, 46,000-square-foot non-residential building which would include a clinic, offices for family services, youth services, job training facilities, and a 20,000-square-foot senior care center. Parking for more than 380 vehicles is also planned in surface spaces.

The apartments would be reserved for low- and extremely low-income households, per the report.

AC Martin remains the architect for the Esperanza Village development, which would see residential buildings reduced to three stories in height - now without podium parking. The project's Mediterranean-style  design remains unchanged.

Construction of Esperanza Village is expected to occur in a single phase, with completion projected for October 2027.

The MacLaren facility served as a temporary shelter for foster youth in Los Angeles County from the 1960s through the early 2000s, when the facility closed in the aftermath of a lawsuit over its treatment of mentally-ill children.

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