A report to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission offers up new details on a proposed mixed-use affordable housing development at Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights.

Just over one year ago, Azure Development filed plans to redevelop the former site of a laundromat at 1800 E. 1st Street with a five-story edifice featuring 44 residential units atop 8,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a 45 parking spaces at-grade and in a basement garage.  Plans call for a mix of studio, one-, and two-bedroom dwellings, which will be set aside as affordable housing as the very low- and extremely low-income levels.

Y&M Architects is designing the low-rise structure, which would be clad in masonry veneer and fiber cement boards.  Floor plans indicate that the building would feature outdoor decks at the roof and podium levels, as well as a community room for additional open space.

A staff report to the Planning Commission recommends that the project at 1st Street and Boyle Avenue should be approved.

Azure Development entered into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the City of Los Angeles for the development of the project site in 2017.  The proposed apartment complex is to be built using Measure HHH funding.

The Commerce-based developer is also planning affordable housing at a property in unincorporated East Los Angeles, and was part of a team that bid for development rights at the Rancho San Pedro public housing complex near the L.A. Waterfront.

A similar affordable housing development with street-level retail was completed at the opposite corner of 1st and Boyle in 2017, and another project is slated for a Metro-owned site adjacent to the Mariachi Plaza subway station entrance.

Interested in finding affordable housing? Visit housing.lacity.org.