The Los Angeles City Council has voted to uphold the approval of a proposed mixed-use project from California Home Builders in the Warner Center neighborhood, concluding a tussle that began nearly two years at the South Valley Area Planning Commission.

The proposed project, approved in June 2020, calls for razing a one-story church at 21300 Califa Street to make way for the construction of a two-phase development consisting of rental apartments and commercial offices. The initial phase of the development would consist of a seven-story building featuring 194 dwellings, inclusive of four live/work units, eight hotel rooms, live/work offices, and approximately 3,500 square feet of street-fronting commercial space. Plans also call for 317 parking stalls in a subterranean garage.

A second phase of the project would consist of a 22-story, 327-foot-tall office tower featuring roughly 192,000 square feet of space above 234 parking spaces in an underground garage.

21300 Califa StreetGoogle Maps

Architecture firm Newman Garrison + Partners is designing the Califa Street development.

The appellant, the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, had argued that the project is inconsistent with both the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan and other zoning rules for the area, and should be subjected to additional review under the California Environmental Quality Act.  Additionally, the appeal argues that California Home Builders should be required to pay additional fees for mobility improvements and cultural amenities in Warner Center.

While the Area Planning Commission previously voted to grant the portion of the appeal relating to revised fees for the Califa Street project, a staff report found no evidence for the claims made regarding zoning and the California Environmental Quality Act.

California Home Builders, which is based out of the San Fernando Valley, has already built more than 500 apartments in the Warner Center area, and is poised to build hundreds more in a handful of mixed-use projects across the neighborhood.