Norwalk is moving forward on a large project aiming to fulfill part of its state-mandated Housing Element plan a month after California revoked the city’s compliance with the Housing Element law and filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn a city moratorium on homeless shelters.
The city has approved a plan for a 32-acre mixed-use development that will replace a shuttered youth prison complex at 13200 Bloomfield Avenue.
The former California Youth Authority prison buildings will be demolished to make way for the Norwalk Transit Village, which will fill several city blocks with four- and five-story apartment buildings encompassing more than 650 units and a row of 118 townhomes, Urbanize LA reported.
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The project also will feature a neighborhood commercial center along Bloomfield Avenue, including 66K square feet of commercial space and a 150-room hotel, as well as a 1.6-acre central park and more than two acres of linear parks. About 300 units in the village be reserved for low- and very low-income households.
The Norwalk Transit Village is one of several projects that aim to fulfill the city's 2021-2029 Housing Element plan, which requires the city to add 5,034 housing units during the eight-year cycle. In April, the city unveiled a Heart of Norwalk plan to revamp its downtown through rezoning that aims to spur the construction of more than 3,000 homes.
In August, the Norwalk City Council approved a 45-day moratorium on land uses including emergency shelters, single-room occupancy housing, supportive housing and transitional housing. According to a report in the Daily Breeze, the moratorium was a response to an L.A. County initiative to open an interim housing program at a Norwalk motel.
Gov. Gavin Newsom demanded that the city reverse the temporary ban on shelters. Instead, the city council voted in September to extend the moratorium for an additional 10 months.
On Oct. 3, Newsom announced that California’s Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) had revoked Norwalk’s compliance with the state’s Housing Element law, imposing builder’s remedy zoning overrides and making Norwalk ineligible to receive key state housing and homelessness funds.
“The Norwalk City Council’s failure to reverse this ban, despite knowing it is unlawful, is inexcusable,” Newsom said, in a statement. “No community should turn its back on its residents in need.”
Early last month, the state filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking a court order compelling the city to repeal its moratorium on homeless shelters. The lawsuit also seeks to suspend the city’s nonresidential permitting authority and prohibit the city from denying affordable housing projects.
The state’s lawsuit alleges that Norwalk violated California’s urgency ordinance statute, the Housing Crisis Act, the Housing Element Law, the Anti-Discrimination in Land Use Law, the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Law and the by-right laws for supportive housing and emergency shelters.
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