Downtown Planners Propose 250 Square-foot Units
By Victor - Wednesday July 25th 2007 |
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News comes today that city planners are seeking zoning changes to allow for 250 square-foot units to be built in and around Downtown.
Opponents are very vocal:
“I see it as creating a neighborhood where parking is horrendous and families are squeezing themselves into these units which are very small because they are affordable,” affordable housing developer Noreen McClendon said.
While a representative from a development firm that stands to gain financially from the passage of the zoning change, makes some good points:
“This is a landmark event. The people who care about downtown L.A. have been waiting for these ordinances for a long time,” said Dan Rosenfeld, a principal in the downtown development firm Urban Partners.
It was not clear how or why the number of 250 was arrived upon, nor were exact details on these square-foot units are not yet known. My personal speculation is these may be for those new slim, standing hyperbaric chambers or in fact spacious living quarters for a new breed of genetically engineered micro-beings. Either way, the rejuvenation of Downtown Los Angeles wins.
That grosses me out. Having just moved from a shoebox single, I don’t wish that on anyone.
250sqft is huge. There’s a dude on craigslist that rents out plywood-walled cubicle bedrooms in shared lofts. Those are probably clocking in at around 40-50sqft (that’s being generous)…250sqft is the height of luxury!
Admittedly the first time i glazed over this article, I missed the fact that we are talking about 250 individual (one-) square-foot units. Still, probably worth the investment. You could store one burrito from shack row in each, if nothing else.
These units are for people to live by themselves.
I suppose I could see families of four (at maximum) moving into one, but that’s not what they are supposed to be for, and I believe that they could easily pass a reg that only two people maximum would be allowed to live in these.
Having said that, I doubt that too many developers are going to jump on this. There might not be a market for units so small, personally I see them going no smaller than 400 sq. ft., but I guess we shall see what happens.