An automobile repair business in Mid City could give way for a mixed-use development.

Earlier this week, plans were submitted to the City of Los Angeles to construct a residential-retail complex on a quarter-acre site at 5835 W. Pico Boulevard.  A case filing from the Department of City Planning list the project as a four-story structure featuring 28 apartments - including three units of very low income housing - seated above street-level retail space and two levels of underground parking.

The proposed would offer one-bedroom apartments, as well as a small quantity of two-bedroom dwellings.  Plans also call for rooftop amenity space and a landscaped central courtyard. 

According to architect David Takacs, the project was imagined as an articulated block which stitches itself down to ground-level at certain points.  The facade is described as a faceted stucco mass with triangular infill panels of glass and aluminum.

Takacs noted that the proposed development's proximity to destinations such as Little Ethiopia present an opportunity to augment pedestrian activity in the surrounding neighborhood.

The propsoed is contingent on a series of density bonus incentives requested by property owner Walter Samson, a mechanic who has owned the underlying property since the mid-1980s.  Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin in one year.

A similar development is currently underway a short distance west on Pico Boulevard.