Several Westchester residents gathered at a city meeting on Monday to push back against a plan to rezone single family lots to build high-rise apartments.
Making their voices heard, residents chanted, “When I say, ‘high rise,’ you say, ‘no’” in response to the city’s plan to make space for 255,000 units across Los Angeles. The plan involves making multi-family units in Westchester but opponents say the neighborhood isn’t the best choice for possible projects.
“Duplex and triplex and fourplex being turned into high rises with 32 units, and it’s over building when it’s not needed,” said Jolie Delja, a Westchester community leader.
The biggest grievance residents shared is what they say is a lack of infrastructure in their community to support additional units.
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“I mean, we have 15,000 more people coming here and we don’t have the parking space for that. We don’t have the plumbing space for that,” said Eric Moore, who lives in the neighborhood.
The city said future projects would help in its goal to build affordable housing units. The group Building a Better Westchester agrees that the move would enrich the community.
“Our organization believes great, we are now able to be part of the solution -- not the whole solution -- for solving the housing crisis,” said Peter Hodes of Building a Better Westchester.
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City Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Westchester, was in attendance in the meeting and assured her constituents she was listening.
“The reason that I am here tonight is to personally hear from you,” Park said. “We are going to make refinements so that we get this right for you as a community.”
At this time, it is unclear how tall the possible apartments would be. The city planning team says the apartments will be three stories tall, but there is a possibility developers may decide to build up to five-story tall complexes.
