In Lake Balboa, the former site of a Sizzler restaurant is up for redevelopment, according to an application just submitted to the Los Angeles Department of City Planning.

Lion Signature, Inc., owner of the nearly 50,000-square-foot site at 16949-16955 Sherman Way, is seeking city entitlements to raze the shuttered restaurant and its surface parking lot to clear the way for the construction of a new four-story building featuring 111 studio, one-, and two-bedroom apartments with approximately 4,500 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and 160 parking stalls on two subterranean levels.

As construction of the project is contingent on a zone change to allow new construction in a parking-only area at the northern side of the site, the apartment complex would be subject to the provisions of Measure JJJ. To comply, 13 of the new apartments would be set aside for rent as very low-income affordable housing.

Alajajian Marcoosi Architects, best known for the Armenian American Museum in Glendale, is designing 16955 Sherman Way, which would have an exterior of painted plaster, composite wood panels, and metal siding. Plans show that the building would have an E-shaped footprint wrapping around a pair of small courtyards at the ground level, with additional open space provided at a rooftop deck.

The existing restaurant, which shuttered around the time of the onset of the global pandemic, was sold in November 2019 for approximately $4.1 million, according to city records.

The development site is located roughly a half-mile south of a property at 7650 Balboa Boulevard, where another property owner has proposed to clear a mobile home park to make way for a similar mixed-use building featuring 150 apartments - half of which would be income-restricted.