Panel Eases Rules to Convert Downtown Buildings to Lofts

The dream of turning empty or underused office buildings around downtown Los Angeles into residential lofts moved a bit closer to reality Thursday when the city Planning Commission approved rules that would make such conversions much easier.

Planners hope that the new codes will encourage so-called live-work projects that will attract video techies, graphic artists and adventurous attorneys the way similar efforts have succeeded in Denver, New York and San Francisco. Developers had been put off by previous Los Angeles regulations that treated a 90-year-old, 12-story structure on Spring Street the same as a new, suburban garden apartment building.

Other questions about financing and fire codes remain to be solved, and concerns about street safety and the lack of grocery stores must be addressed in marketing the buildings. Yet Donald Spivack, deputy administrator of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, praised Thursday’s unanimous vote, calling it “an excellent move.”

The ordinance would affect several hundred buildings in a swath of central downtown between the Harbor Freeway, the Santa Monica Freeway and Alameda Street and in the Figueroa Street corridor to USC and Exposition Park. However, only 60 to 100 buildings are thought to have the layout and location that would make them suitable for conversion. Only a handful of those are expected to be renovated in the next few years, officials said.

Some members of the Planning Commission expressed skepticism that Los Angeles could replicate the success that New York has had in converting office space into upscale residential lofts. In response, city planner Alan Bell suggested that catalysts such as the sports arena under construction will make downtown more attractive to people who want both a break from long commutes and an alternative to bland apartment living.

Architectural preservationist Linda Dishman agreed. “I think people really want to live close to work and live in architecturally interesting places,” said Dishman, who is executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

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The City Council is expected to approve the ordinance, which applies only to buildings constructed before 1974.

The ordinance exempts the proposed live-work buildings from the parking and yards required of traditional apartment buildings, and it waives density rules that might allow only a portion of a structure to be converted into residential space. However, to ensure that the buildings are not turned into cramped single-room occupancy hotels, a converted unit must be at least 450 square feet, and the average for units throughout a building must be at least 750 square feet.

As a way to attract council votes, the proposed ordinance also would broaden 1994 rules that allow working artists to live in commercial buildings; the new proposals would permit all sorts of professions to occupy commercial structures citywide although it gives special incentives only to the downtown zone.

Despite some reservations, planning commission Vice President Robert Scott said he voted for the ordinance as a way to limit suburban sprawl and bring downtown back to life. “This is a way to make a reinvestment in the city,” he said.