Apartment Look

LANSDALE >> Plans for a six- story apartment building on the corner of Third and Walnut streets have been revised again, and Lansdale officials look likely to be asked to approve several waivers for the project. Developer Ross Ziegler and architect Mike Rosen presented the latest version of those plans Monday night , describing changes including a new fence next to a dog park meant to buffer the building from its next door neighbors on Third Street. “In terms of both the fence and the dog park, we’d be open to discussions, certainly, to explore what would be more desirable, or how we can come up with solutions that might make more sense,” said Rosen. “We really want to encourage the concept of pet ownership, and taking care of their pets. And we clearly have been sensitive to the neighbor issue, and we will deal with it,” he said. The proposed Third and Walnut apartment building — termed “Walnut Crossing” on the plans — has been discussed since late 2015 by various borough b...

The largest apartment complex proposed in Placentia in years is expected to spark more interest in building housing in the city’s older industrial area ; the project has cleared the first hurdle for city approval. The Planning Commission recently approved the five-story, luxury apartment complex on 2.95 acres of Crowther Avenue where the Boys & Girls Club once was. The City Council will have a public hearing on the development agreement on Sept. 12. City leaders hope the 215-unit project, paired with the much anticipated Metrolink station , will be the catalyst in the revitalization of the Packing House District , which is 28 acres of predominately empty lots and old industrial buildings along the street. “This is the most significant development project that I can think of in the city’s history,” Placentia’s Director of Development Services Joe Lambert said. “We probably haven’t had a project with this number of units in the last 20 years.” The transit- oriented project pe...

Known for strip malls and shopping centers and rows of single-family homes, the Valley is often thought of as somehow separate from Los Angeles—though most of its communities have been part of the city for over 100 years. But that perception may start to slip away as new transit options and LA’s rising cost of living draw in new residents and development dollars. In advance of some of these changes, we caught up with several active community members in the Valley to get their take on the region’s future. Here’s what we learned: Don’t call it a suburb The Valley may not be as dense as Downtown LA or Koreatown—nor as walkable—but it’s still plenty urban. “If the Valley is a suburb, I don’t know what you’d call Santa Clarita or Simi Valley or the Thousand Oaks area ,” says lifelong Valley resident Zachary Rynew , who founded the CiclaValley blog to promote bicycling events in the area and advocate for better bike infrastructure . Yvette Lopez-Ledesma, deputy director of Pacoima Beaut...