An L.A. big enough for tiny apartments

Posted by Susy Thielen on July 24th, 2007 — in Housing News

Planners propose units as small as 250 square feet. After all, New York and Paris have them.

By Sharon Bernstein, Times Staff Writer
July 24, 2007

Is Los Angeles ready for the 250-square-foot apartment?

That’s what city planning officials have in mind with a series of sweeping new zoning proposals that would allow developers to build smaller condos and apartments than ever before.

The tiny units — studios that officials hope would be as small as 250 square feet — are part of a package of proposed zoning changes aimed at significantly increasing density in downtown L.A. The rules would apply to the roughly five miles around downtown but could eventually be extended elsewhere in the city.

The idea is to encourage developers to continue to build high-rises downtown even as the market appears poised to slow down — while also spurring them to build units that are more affordable. Supporters — who include the city’s top planning officials, some developers and Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes downtown — say the rules will encourage the construction of housing at a time when the city desperately needs it.

“This is a landmark event,” said Dan Rosenfeld, a principal in the development firm Urban Partners, which is behind several downtown projects. “The people who care about downtown L.A. have been waiting for these ordinances for a long time.”

But the proposal — slated to come before the City Council next week — is already drawing criticism from those who see it as another effort to boost development in a region that is already in a high-rise building boom stretching from downtown through Koreatown and into Century City, Westwood and Marina del Rey.

Some land-use experts question whether there is much of a market for tiny apartments in downtown L.A., which, despite its recent resurgence, still lacks the cachet of Manhattan, central London or Paris. Others fear overcrowding and slum conditions if the market goes sour and the units are too densely packed.

“I see it as creating a neighborhood where parking is horrendous and families are squeezing themselves into these units which are very small because they are affordable,” said Noreen McClendon, a developer of affordable housing. “It’s just a tenement.”

The tiny apartment is a fairly new concept in Southern California, which has a long history of suburban sprawl and larger spaces.

But in New York, Boston, San Francisco and many European and Asian cities, residents have squeezed into tiny apartments for decades, usually because the lure of the downtown area is so great — and the prices for larger places so high.

Gretchen Broussard, who co-owns Tiny Living, a Manhattan store that sells furnishings for small spaces, lived in a 200-square-foot apartment in that New York borough until five years ago.

“I couldn’t even turn around in the space,” Broussard said. “I maxed out every inch of the wall space, mounted everything to get it off the floor … ”

In San Francisco, Martin Eng rents a 300-square-foot studio in the swanky Nob Hill neighborhood, across from the Ritz-Carlton hotel. Though Eng has several other homes around the state, the apartment is his primary residence — and he said it’s livable only because it has a good view and plenty of light.

With a rent-controlled cost of $400 a month — below the market rate — the studio is a convenient city crash pad for Eng, 53, who works in investment.

“Mine is a tiny place, not somewhere you would want to entertain or bring people,” Eng said. “It’s like a poor man penthouse — you can’t really be proud of it.”

Although the new L.A. ordinance does not directly address the size of the apartments that could be built, it would remove all restrictions on the number of units that developers could put in a single building, a move that planners hope will result in residences as small as 250 square feet — about the size of a hotel room or a modest living room.

The ordinance would also let developers willing to reserve some apartments for low- and moderate-income families to make their buildings 35% bigger than zoning rules normally allow and to opt out of providing half the open space typically required. Those who build units for those with very low incomes would not have to offer parking spaces for those residences.

Perry said the proposed rules would concentrate new housing downtown while preserving single-family homes elsewhere.

The smallest units, Perry said, might be attractive to young professionals who want to buy a condo but can’t afford anything larger, or to service workers who couldn’t otherwise afford to buy or rent near their downtown jobs.

Burbank architect Mark Gangi, who also teaches at USC, said the rules could help mold downtown into a lively metropolitan center.

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Housing plans shelved for now

Posted by Susy Thielen on July 9th, 2007 — in Housing News

Keene Sentinel Area briefs, 7/6/07

Plans for 150 town houses near the future county jail in Keene have slipped down the slope of the Hill property.

At least for now, the developer said.

In a letter to the Keene City Council, Chris Stewart, a vice president with Landmark Planning & Development LLC, which was planning the corporate park, said he is withdrawing the application for rezoning the property. But, he also wrote, “my intent is to reapply sometime in the future.”

This morning Stewart said he pulled the rezoning application because it appeared the council’s planning, licensing and development committee would not approve it.

Landmark wanted to build the $200,000 town houses on about 60 acres of the 109-acre property on Route 101 near the Marlborough town line - known as the Hill property. However, it needed to have the land rezoned from rural to medium density.

A portion of the property is already slated for a new Cheshire County jail.

The developer’s dropping of the town houses will not affect its plans for building a multi-purpose corporate park on about 40 acres of the property, Stewart said.

The rezoning of that property from rural to corporate park is in the council’s planning, license and development committee for the next 90 days while city officials examine the potential for the project to increase the threat of flooding.

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Task force, local bank see potential for new type of affordable housing in Nashua

Posted by Susy Thielen on July 9th, 2007 — in NH Housing Coalitions, Housing News

By ASHLEY SMITH, Nashua Telegraph Staff
asmith@nashuatelegraph.com

Published: Sunday, Jul. 8, 2007

BOSTON – On the harbor in East Boston, there’s a public housing development that looks nothing like “the projects.”

Rows of new townhomes, painted in shades of blue, tan and salmon, face tree-lined sidewalks. It happens to be trash day on this Tuesday, but the narrow streets are otherwise immaculate. In a grassy back yard, three kids jump rope.

It isn’t utopia, but it’s city-subsidized housing as few have seen it.

There’s a park in the middle of this 10-block development, neatly landscaped with a fountain and benches. Nearby is the community center, where neighborhood kids can access the Internet for free in a supervised environment.

Here at Maverick Landing, well-paid young professionals live side by side with families on government assistance. About 80 percent of the tenants receive aid, paying rent based upon their income. The other 20 percent pay no less than $1,700 per month for a one-bedroom unit.

The concept is a hit. Leasing manager Laura DeLuca has run out of units to lease, the last one snagged last week.

So what does all this have to do with Nashua?

On Tuesday, a group of local leaders – bank officials, a mayoral candidate, a retired executive, nonprofit heads – piled into a 15-passenger van to visit the neighborhood. They strolled the streets, talking about what a development like Maverick Landing would do for Nashua, perhaps in the Tree Streets or the East Hollis Street corridor.

Most are members of the Greater Nashua Workforce Housing Coalition, a task force dedicated to bringing affordable housing to the city, but the tour was led by Alan Manoian, the city’s former assistant director of downtown development.

Manoian is leading the push to bring this “New Urbanist” type of development to Nashua in his new role as the economic development officer for Hampshire First Bank, a relatively new local bank.

There’s no specific plan for Nashua yet – the push is in its infancy – but Hampshire First hopes to get other banks and city aldermen on board.

Manoian describes New Urbanist development as “the alternative to suburban, automobile-oriented sprawl.” It’s a national movement to re-create the type of downtown living that diminished when families spread to the suburbs.

It involves building densely populated, mixed-use neighborhoods that have access to public transit, he said.

“Nashua, unfortunately, for the past 40 years has developed sprawl,” Manoian said. “Here’s a profound concept: What if we shopped where we lived? What if we worked near where we live?”

Solving problems?

Of course, Manoian doesn’t believe for a second that introducing this type of development would be easy, even in small scale. But here are some of the recurring city issues he and the task force think it would help solve:

• The affordable housing shortage: With the median home price in Nashua around $300,000, this is the reason a work-force housing coalition exists. The task force defines “affordable” as housing that costs no more than 30 percent of a family’s income.

Manoian said the key to affordable housing is density, like that of downtown Nashua before the 1960s, when the neighborhoods behind Main Street were demolished as part of an urban renewal project. Now there’s a realization that Nashua needs balance between downtown living and the suburbs.

Manoian said density tends to scare people because they think of old-style institutional housing projects, but that modern work-force housing, if well designed, doesn’t mean overcrowding.

n The exodus of young workers: With surveys showing that New Hampshire college graduates increasingly take jobs elsewhere, this is a hot topic all over the state. The Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce has tried to address the “brain drain” locally by creating a social and networking group for young professionals.

But to entice those young professionals to stay, they still need places to live.

Manoian said Nashua is losing young workers who aren’t yet ready to move to the suburbs but who can’t find affordable housing downtown. And without an available pool of these employees, companies won’t locate here, he said.

n The high price of suburban sprawl: Manoian blames the shift away from traditional downtown living for escalating property taxes. The farther away shops and workplaces are, the more roads need to built and maintained, he said. Then you need more police cruisers to patrol those roads. Soon, you need a new fire station and more city employees. It’s expensive to operate a municipality that way, he said.

Sprawl also adds to personal transportation costs, because families need to travel everywhere they go by car rather than public transportation or on foot, Manoian said. He also maintains that public transportation – such as the long-discussed commuter rail in Nashua – is an essential part of New Urbanism.
ENLARGE PHOTO
The Maverick Landing housing project in Boston’s east side surrounds the Albert “Junior” Lombardi Memorial Park.
Staff photo by Bob Hammerstrom
The Maverick Landing housing project in Boston’s east side surrounds the Albert “Junior” Lombardi Memorial Park.
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Looking ahead

It may be surprising to some that a bank is involved in developing affordable housing, but Manoian doesn’t think so. As of one of the few locally owned banks left, Hampshire First considers the city’s economic development part of its mission, he said.

“In our mind, that’s what a new bank should be doing,” Manoian said. “The banks have to be involved. Someone has to do the financing.”

Considering the upcoming mayoral election, the time seems right to push for change, Manoian said. One of the housing task force members, former Great American Downtown President Donnalee Lozeau, is a candidate for mayor.

Other local leaders on the tour were United Way of Greater Nashua Vice President Ray Peterson, Milford Community Development Director Bill Parker, Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce President Chris Williams, Hampshire First Director of Community Banking Jay Dinkel and recently retired Merrimack Anheuser-Busch Plant Manager Denny Nesbitt.

After leaving Maverick Landing on Tuesday, the group made a quick stop in Medford, Mass., to see a different example of New Urbanist development. Called Station Landing, it’s an upscale mixed-use development with shops and restaurants on the street level and luxury condos above.

Manoian said some hybrid of the two might be right for Nashua. Like Maverick Landing in East Boston, Station Landing was designed around access to public transportation. It was built around an MBTA station.

“The common thread between the two is the automobile is not the focus of my lifestyle,” Manoian said.

Ashley Smith can be reached at 594-6446 or asmith@nashuatelegraph.com.

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More women buying homes on their own

Posted by Susy Thielen on March 26th, 2007 — in Housing News

By JIM WASSERMAN, Sacramento Bee

Kim Braziel bought her first townhouse three years ago when she was 26 and a single, working woman in Los Angeles. She recalls the move when she was just four years out of college as a stand for financial independence.

“I just didn’t want to pay anyone else’s mortgage,” Braziel says. “I wanted to invest in my own future.” Read the rest of this page »

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