A proposal to redevelop a single-family home north of the Mormon church's immense Los Angeles Temple in Westwood has been cleared by the Los Angeles City Planning Commission.

10756 Wilkins AvenueGoogle Street View

On April 11, the Commission voted to approve plans from FIN Holdings, LLC and Wilkins Group, LLC - affiliates of Anaheim-based Keystone Builders, Inc. and Los Angeles-based Lumar Corporation, respectively - for a site located at 10756 W. Wilkins Avenue. Plans for the wedge-shaped lot at Wilkins and Ohio Avenue call for razing the existing home to make way for the construction of a new five-story building featuring 11 apartments above parking for seven vehicles.

While an original application for a smaller project had relied on the Transit Oriented Communities incentives to permit seven homes on the site, an updated density bonus filing permits a slightly larger building, with Planning Commission approval. In exchange for development incentives, two apartments would be set aside for rent at the very low-income level.

As with the earlier filing, Labyrinth Design Studio is the architect behind the updated project, which is depicted in renderings as a contemporary low-rise structure. However, gone is the original plan for a rooftop oculus hovering over a private deck on the top floor.

10756 Wilkins AvenueGoogle Maps

The switch to the state density bonus program was spurred by a legal decision which limits the use of Transit Oriented Communities incentives within specific plan areas. The organization Fix The City successfully sued to block the construction of the earlier iteration of the project.

Although the project was not faced with a formal appeal, it was nonetheless subject to dozens of comments in opposition from the abutting St. Paul the Apostle Church, who argued that construction of an apartment building at this location would worsen traffic congestion and pose a safety hazards to students at the church's private school.

Two blocks west of the project site on Westwood Boulevard, larger multifamily residential developments are poised to replace commercial structures between Massachusetts Avenue and Ohio Avenue.

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