Accord on Housing Leads to Approval of 2-Tower Complex

The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday voted 14 to 1 to approve the controversial $600-million, two-tower Watt City Center office and retail complex after a landmark agreement was struck requiring simultaneous construction of 80 housing units to replace those razed for the development.

Arthur K. Snyder, a former councilman and now lobbyist for Watt and Merselis developers, said construction will begin next month. The 62-story and 27-story towers will total nearly 1.7 million square feet.

The development between 7th and 8th streets is the first project within the Central City West district, a 314-acre area bordering downtown just west of the Harbor Freeway. Advocates of low- and moderate-income housing have viewed Watt City Center as a test of their demands for timely replacement housing.

“It looks like this is a great precedent--any developer who builds in Central City West will have to do replacement housing when his project is occupied,” said Father Philip Lance, an Episcopal priest and organizer of the 250-member United Neighbors of Temple Beaudry & City West. “That is the message we wanted to send today.”

About 35 of the predominantly Latino neighbors quietly observed the two-hour council hearing and then paraded outside City Hall to demonstrate their housing demands.

Michael Bodaken, an attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation who has represented the neighbors, told the council that a more vociferous protest was averted late Monday when the developers agreed to build the housing “up front.”

Snyder said the developer had hoped to delay work on the housing for about six months after occupancy of the first tower, but ultimately agreed to prepare the housing units for occupancy at the same time as the offices. He said land acquisition for the housing would begin immediately.

Another major sticking point--where to build the 80 new units--was remedied by negotiations among the developer, the neighbors, and the offices of Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, in whose district the Watt City Center will be built, and Councilwoman Gloria Molina, in whose district Temple Beaudry neighbors have lost housing because of other developments.

Developers are required to replace razed housing, and normally the new units are expected to be built where old ones were razed. Under this agreement, however, the 80 units will be built a few blocks away in the Temple Beaudry neighborhood.

The city has had a moratorium on new projects in Central City West, pending adoption of a new development plan, which is now under consideration and includes housing and transportation proposals. Watt and Merselis sought an early go-ahead out of fear of losing promised financing.

Bodaken emphasized that the developer has signed a “memorandum of understanding” to abide by the pending plan’s housing element, even if it ultimately differs from what is now outlined.

Molina, who called the development “an ideal project,” said it will provide about $15 million in private funds for housing, and nearly $20 million for transportation, while producing taxes for local government.

With the housing precedent negotiated and apparently pleasing all sides, the council concentrated its debate Tuesday on traffic concerns raised by Councilman Marvin Braude, who cast the lone vote against the project.

Braude argued that the council should not approve any new project until it decides how to handle excess traffic in downtown Los Angeles. He said the Watt development would seriously overburden the Harbor Freeway, which he estimated already has 2,000 more vehicles per peak hour than it was built to serve.

The developer had voluntarily withdrawn plans to build a 1,000-space garage for vans between the two towers in order to reduce the amount of new traffic.

The city Planning Commission on Oct. 5 approved only a 27-story tower, denying immediate construction of the 62-story section. But Watt appealed, arguing that building only a small part of the development was economically unfeasible.

The council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee last week recommended approval of both towers.

Without a unanimous vote, the project must come before the City Council for a second vote next week, but final approval appears certain.