Will Downtown LA’s huge Angels Landing development be ‘underparked’?

The Angels Landing development planned for a grassy Downtown knoll at Fourth and Hill streets is betting big on Los Angeles’s car-light future.

The project will have 465 parking spaces, developer Ricardo Pagan of Claridge Properties told an audience last week at an event for Bisnow. Those spaces will serve approximately 650 apartments and condos, 500 hotel units across two hotels, an elementary school, and shops.

The parking plan rocked the room Tuesday night: “The audience of 250 or so commercial real estate professionals gasped upon hearing Pagan’s bold underparking plans,” Bisnow reports.

We hope those shocked folks are sitting down, because this development isn’t underparked.

The project is located within the bounds of the Bunker Hill Specific Plan, which guides development in the part of Downtown LA bordered by Hill Street, the 110 Freeway, First Street, and Fifth Street.

Photo by Sterling Davis

Under the plan, one-quarter of a parking space is required for residential units with less than two habitable rooms, and a half space is required for all other units, according to Cheryl Getuiza, city planning department spokesperson. Other uses, like hotels, don’t have any parking minimums. With 650 apartments and condos, it seems the city would require the project to have 325 parking spots at most.

That “low” total is likely music to the ears of many LA urbanists. The city’s parking requirements have been called out often over the past few years, with critics blaming the rules for driving up the cost of building in the city.

Adding parking often means adding an additional floor or more, which makes construction costs rise—and those costs can get passed on to residents.

Claridge Properties, along with MacFarlane Partners and the Peebles Corporation, joined under the banner Angels Landing Partners LLC to develop the Angels Landing project. Their plans for the complex were approved by the City Council late last year.

Those plans call for an 88-story skyscraper, a 24-story tower, SLS and Mondrian hotels, and public open space.

Angels Landing is close to numerous bus lines and already houses an entrance to the Pershing Square subway station.

The project is scheduled to open in 2024.

• The $1.2B, 2M SF Angels Landing Site In Downtown Los Angeles Will Only Have 465 Parking Spaces [Bisnow]
• City Council approves Angels Landing plan that would bring 88-story tower, elementary school to Bunker Hill [Curbed LA]
• How parking lots are ruining Los Angeles [Curbed LA]