When South Group wanted to build the Elleven project in South Park – the first ground-up residential building Downtown in nearly 20 years – many city officials welcomed the plan as paving the way for a new wave of high-rise housing, the Downtown News reports.
But even with such support, South Group, which began planning Elleven in 2002, hit a couple of hurdles: zoning codes required it to leave room for a front yard, side lots and limited the number of units.
The problem was that the regulations called for the 13-story high-rise in Downtown to follow some of the same construction rules as a single-family home in Eagle Rock, or many other projects anywhere in Los Angeles.
It took four months for South Group to work through the zoning snags.
“Without a series of variances and approvals we asked for, the project wound not have been able to be built,” said Craig Lawson, president of Craig Lawson and Co., which helps developers including South Group navigate the planning process.
