DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - If Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Community Redevelopment Agency are serious about transforming a four-mile swath of industrial land along the Los Angeles River into the “Cleantech Corridor,” they may have to flip the area’s current zoning model on its head. They also should ditch the name.
Those were two of the many short- and long-term suggestions that city officials are beginning to weigh in the wake of a visit by a high-ranking panel from the Urban Land Institute. The group, which was invited by the CRA, is now working on a formal report on how to make the area a hub of innovative and environmentally friendly businesses.
Currently, about 80% of the industrial space in the area that runs from Chinatown to Washington Boulevard (including the Arts District) is zoned for manufacturing or distribution uses. Only 20% is reserved for business and technology incubators, fabrication and related support services. The group of land-use experts from around the country assembled by the ULI said that in order for the area to thrive as a center for innovation, the zoning ratio needs to be reversed.
The panel’s initial ideas were put forth at a May 21 presentation, which came after a week studying the area. A full report from the ULI is due within eight weeks.
The push toward smaller firms and incubators seems to be in line with recent CRA moves in the area; the agency recently reached a deal with the DWP to build a research lab and green business incubator across from the Barker Block lofts in the Arts District.
The panel had a number of other thoughts, including coming up with a new name for the Cleantech Corridor.
“There’s a risk of ‘cleantech’ becoming trendy and dated,” said panelist Jeff Kingsbury, managing principal of Indiana-based Greenstreet, Ltd.
The cleantech label also risks excluding industrial users that would be good fits for the neighborhood, Kingsbury said. The name may be catchy, but it sounds like it is too tied to companies engaged in clean technologies such as solar panel or wind turbine manufacturers. The area is more likely to attract smaller companies engaged in an array of new technologies that have less obvious, but still clean, applications.
“It’s a pretty interesting and diverse genre and within it there are many segments,” said Tom Eitler, vice president of the ULI, who helped coordinate the Los Angeles visit.
Instead of the Cleantech Corridor, Kingsbury and the panel suggested the city brand the area with a nod to its existing creative character and call it the Industrial Arts District.
If the area is to turn into a dynamic industrial district and employment center, the panelists said it needs some basic infrastructure upgrades and an aesthetic facelift with an emphasis on greenery.
“Repave the streets and the sidewalks,” which have been historically overlooked by government, said panelist and New York-based architect Thomas Curley. “Do it now.”
Once the basics are taken care of, the panel suggested that the district set its sights on greening the Los Angeles River and creating a space that could double as an art park spanning both sides of the river, bounded by Fourth and Sixth streets, Santa Fe Avenue, and east of the river, Mission Road. Under a proposed design, tracks for freight trains would be switched to the east side of the river, and commuter rail tracks would be condensed and streamlined on the west side.
Once investment starts pouring in and companies choose to locate in the Industrial Arts District, employees will need better transportation access to the area, Curley said.
Curley and the panelists, repeating a proposal floated by City Councilman Tom LaBonge, recommended that the city and Metro extend the Red Line from its existing terminus at Union Station through the Arts District. The line could be accompanied by three new stations, at Fourth and Seventh streets and Olympic Boulevard, the panelists said (LaBonge’s proposal, currently under review by Metro staff, envisions a station at Sixth Street and Santa Fe Avenue).
As the CRA waits for the ULI’s full report, it is already making some moves. The agency is currently weighing the suggestions and brainstorming on how to approach implementation, said CRA project manager Len Betz.
As the agency starts to digest the suggestions, Betz acknowledged that some recommendations, like fixing basic infrastructure flaws, are doable in the short term. He also recognizes that some of the bigger picture ideas — a new light-rail line, a park spanning both sides of the river — will not happen anytime soon.
“Some of these recommendations may really be reaching but it’s to get people to think about the area and really ponder the possibilities,” Betz said. “Are they doable? In the next five years, no. But the point is really to look beyond our constraints and say we have an asset here and how can we make something like the river happen for Downtown?”
Contact Ryan Vaillancourt at ryan@downtownnews.com.
page 6, 05/31/2010
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