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Los Angeles

Norwalk to turn blighted youth jail into retail housing village

City aims to acquire 32-acre site for 770 apartments and townhomes

Norwalk Mayor Rick Ramirez with rendering of Norwalk Transit Village (City of Norwalk, Norwalk Transit Village)
Norwalk Mayor Rick Ramirez with rendering of Norwalk Transit Village (City of Norwalk, Norwalk Transit Village)

A former state youth jail in Norwalk could be redeveloped into a 32-acre retail housing and hotel complex.

The city has proposed acquiring the former California Youth Authority prison at 13200 Bloomfield Avenue and rezoning the property for a retail-housing village, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The prison site has been largely vacant after it was closed by the California Division of Juvenile Justice in 2011. Its redevelopment would follow a proposed revamp of the Norwalk Civic Center into a 350-unit, mixed-use village.

Construction could begin in spring 2024, if the city can acquire the rectangular property from the state. It also has to rezone the property, amend its general plan and sign an agreement with an unidentified developer.

The gateway city in south Los Angeles County hatched the makeover in a Norwalk Transit Village Specific Plan.

Plans call for demolishing the low-slung prison buildings “to rehabilitate a blighted state property,” according to the city.

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The Norwalk Transit Village, designed by Chicago-based Perkins&Will, would create four city blocks of four- and five-story apartment buildings with more than 650 units, plus a row of 118 townhomes and 2,500 to 3,500 square feet of shops and restaurants.

A 3-acre commercial center along Bloomfield Avenue would contain a 150-room hotel.
The proposed project, located next to a 14-acre city park, would include a 1.6-acre central park and 2.7 acres of linear parks, pedestrian trails and open space.

At least 40 percent of the proposed apartments would be set aside as affordable. A minimum of 345 units would be rented at market rates. With the exception of the townhomes, parking would be offered on surface lots, curbside spaces, parking garages and even rooftops.

The proposed transit village lies near the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink Station and could eventually be served by an eastward extension of Metro’s Green (C) Line.

– Dana Bartholomew

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Mixed Use DevelopmentNorwalkRedevelopment