710 Corridor / El Sereno Re-Zoning

710 Corridor/ El Sereno Re-Zoning meeting (Photo – Melissa Michelson)

After 60 years of residents fighting to prevent their homes from being demolished by the 710 freeway, LA City Planning held an informational meeting on Monday, March 18, to go over a proposed new zoning for the corridor of properties that Caltrans owns.

By Melissa Michelson

Currently, most of the corridor along Sheffield Avenue from Alhambra Avenue up to the north side of Huntington is zoned as “public facilities”.

Proposed General Plan Land Use: El Sereno/710 Corridor (Photo – Melissa Michelson)

The City is proposing returning the corridor to Low Residential Single Family / R1-1 zoning. The most zoning change would be the northern-most area, where the Caltrans properties, would change to commercial (pink) for location of a library or other city facility, or “Low-Medium II Residential” for triplexes. Several properties at Newtonia Drive would be re-zoned to Medium Residential R-3 (orange), which could allow for 35’ high buildings, or four stories.

The city staffer said Caltrans has sold off 35 out of 250 homes, but he didn’t say whether the properties were sold to individuals, corporations or non-profits.

The meeting, held at the El Sereno Public Library, was a precursor to a virtual public hearing to be held on Wednesday, March 20 at 5:30 pm, to be followed by the City Planning Commission meeting at City Hall on April 11 at 8:30 am. Public input will be taken at both meetings.

As City Planners presented the proposed general plan land use and zoning of the El Sereno/710 Corridor,  over 50 residents listened and asked questions.

“We need to defend our community,” said one resident. Residents also expressed concerns centered centered around the lack of multi-lingual outreach about this and the upcoming meetings, potential increased density, lack of parking and higher ADU’s. Some requested postponement of the upcoming meetings until they could organize their neighbors who may not use computers to email their public comments.

After the library closed and the City Planners left, residents gathered outside to continue discussion.