The City of Norwalk has approved a specific plan to enable the transformation a shuttered youth prison into a large mixed-use development.

Street-level view of Norwalk Transit VillagePerkins&Will

Norwalk Transit Village, planned for a 32-acre site at 13200 Bloomfield Avenue, calls for razing all existing structures on the property, which would be subdivided into eight different zones.  Specific project elements include:

  • a roughly three-acre neighborhood commercial center featuring 66,000 square feet of commercial uses and a 150-room hotel;
  • multiple residential blocks containing a combined 770 apartments and townhomes, ground-floor commercial space, and community amenities; and
  • an approximately 1.56-acre central park and more than two acres of linear parks.

The specific plan requires approximately 40 percent of the new housing to be set aside for low- and very low-income households, or roughly 300 units in total.

As of 2022, Perkins&Will was leading the master plan process, which would permit buildings up to five stories in height.

Street-level view of Norwalk Transit VillagePerkins&Will

An environmental study has previously projected that the Norwalk Transit Village could be built in a single phase concluding by 2030.

The project, which is one of several large developments Norwalk has permitted as a provision of its 2021-2029 Housing Element, reaches approval at a time when the city finds itself at odds with the State of California due to a controversial ordinance banning homeless shelters within its boundaries. The state has sued Norwalk to overturn the ordinance, and moved to decertify its housing element, making the city subject to the builder's remedy.

Follow us on social media: 

Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn / Threads / Instagram