Plans for 71-Unit Senior Housing Complex on South Lake Avenue Go Before Design Commission

The Design Commission is scheduled to hold a preliminary consultation Tuesday, Aug. 11, on plans for a new two-to-five-story mixed-use building with 71 residential dwelling units reserved for senior independent living and 2,325 square feet of ground-floor commercial space at 540 S. Lake Avenue.

The application, filed by DDI 540 S. Lake LLC with architect LCRA, covers a 41,991-square-foot site made up of six contiguous parcels with frontages on South Lake Avenue, Granite Drive and East California Boulevard. Four detached one-story commercial and office buildings totaling 14,188 square feet, along with surface parking, would be demolished to redevelop the site.

Because the item is a preliminary consultation, no vote to approve or deny the project is scheduled. 

Commissioners would offer comments intended to guide the design as it advances, and the project would still require Concept and Final Design Review from the Design Commission, a Certificate of Exception from the Hearing Officer and building permits before construction could begin. For South Lake Avenue businesses and nearby residents, the meeting would put a proposal before the commission that would add senior housing and a ground-floor storefront to three street frontages where most, though not all, of the adjoining buildings stand one story.

The project would rely on State Density Bonus Law. According to the zoning compliance matrix prepared by the Planning & Community Development Department, the base density for the site is 47 units. The project includes eight very low income units and one moderate income unit, and because the eight very low-income units represent 17 percent of the base density, a 50 percent density bonus is permitted, allowing up to 71 units. Nine units in total would be affordable, which the matrix states complies with inclusionary housing requirements.

The proposed building height of 64 feet, 5 inches would not comply with the 40-foot base height limit — which the code allows the Design Commission to raise to 55 feet over as much as 30 percent of a footprint, so long as the average height stays at 40 feet — and the plans indicate a density bonus concession is requested related to the height requirement. The matrix also notes the project does not include any three-bedroom units, which does not comply with unit mix requirements, and that a concession has been requested on that point as well. The staff report states the applicant requests one concession and one waiver to the City’s development standards and will be required to provide a definitive list as the review progresses.

The building would be designed in a contemporary style with boxy rectilinear forms, simple massing, stacked fenestration and balconies, and a material palette of stucco with real or simulated wood accents. It would be composed of three connected long and linear volumes terminating in a flat roof. A two-story volume would be maintained along Lake Avenue with the third, fourth and fifth floors pulled back, while the California Boulevard frontage would step back at the third and fourth floors with no fifth floor. Common areas would include a courtyard on the second floor adjoining a gym and club room, a terrace on the third floor of the Granite Drive wing and a rooftop vegetable garden above the California Boulevard wing.

Staff have flagged a series of potential design issues for the commission’s discussion, including recommendations to further pull back the massing of the upper floors along Lake Avenue, reconsider the location of the courtyard, consider placing all parking spaces in subterranean levels, and place transformers underground or in underground vaults. Staff also ask that exterior finishes avoid simulated wood material, that windows be recessed at least two inches from the facade plane, that rooftop mechanical equipment be concealed, and that the design carefully consider its relationship with the adjoining historic Mentor Court apartment buildings.

The plans propose 89 parking spaces, fewer than the 91 the matrix says are required, though staff note the property is within one-half mile of a major transit stop and that Assembly Bill 2097 may apply. The submitted tree inventory identifies 54 on-site trees and five street trees, with three protected on-site trees proposed for removal; any such removal would require a tree removal permit processed concurrently with design review.

Two of the buildings slated for demolition, at 900 and 906 Granite Drive, were constructed in 1953 and 1961 and have not been evaluated for landmark eligibility, so a Historic Resource Evaluation would be required before they could be demolished. The buildings at 540 S. Lake Avenue and 929 E. California Boulevard, built in 1998 and 1999, would not require one. Staff state the preliminary consultation is not subject to the California Environmental Quality Act.

The Design Commission is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 11, in the George Ellery Hale Building Hearing Room, 175 N. Garfield Ave., in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-4124 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/design-commission/.