Planning Land Use and Mobility Committee

Project Description:

Applicant seeks Warner Center 2035 Project Permit Compliance Review including the demolition of 57,000 sq.ft. of office and warehouse floor area in the College District for construction of 197 senior independent living units, 94 assisted-living units and 32 Alzheimer memory-care units totaling 383,690 sq.ft. of floor area to a maximum height of 96 ft. Applicant also seeks a 26% deviation from the minimum parking space requirement to allow only approximately 0.88 spaces per living unit.

Overview of Site and Project:

The site is composed of two adjacent parcels with outdated single story office/warehouse space. Adjacent to the north is the back of a Home Depot store. To the east across the street two multi-story apartment complexes, the Carabella Apartments built in the last 5 years and the mixed-use Q East under construction. To the south are three properties. One is the Montecito Apartments built about 10-12 years ago. The other two properties with low-rise buildings front onto Erwin. The western one houses Kaiser Permanente Medical Offices. The eastern one is occupied by Network Telephone Services. Most of their parking area is adjacent to the project. To the west is the back of the multi-story Triana apartments. Between Triana and the Trillium Towers to the west of Home Depot is Trillium Drive, which is shared by Trillium and Triana. This is in line with the Property Lines between Home Depot and the Project. This offers the opportunity for cross-block mobility if there is joint access shared by the project and a future project on the Home Depot site.

The project can be thought of as three buildings on two parcels in an L-shape configuration although the three are connected by bridge hallways and a parking structure. The Front portion of the project is intended for senior independent living, the top rear portion for memory care living with assisted living located in between and below.

The building is a contemporary design that features a lot of articulation and variety of materials. Since the initial presentation , the exterior surface detailing has been simplified to reduce the number of design elements competing for attention. The color scheme overall has been lightened up, relying more on white surfaces. The developer proposes using a combination of smooth stucco and metal panels for the walls of the exterior. Shadow box L-shaped elements are located at various places around some balconies. Since the initial presentation to the PLUM committee, new L-shape elements have been added to the roof line to add variation and interest to the roofline. The blue color used at lower levels was not carried over to these elements.

Architectural rendering of the extreme south façade and the front Variel Avenue facade showing transparent amenities on the ground floor.