Developer plans 100-unit apartment complex near Metrolink in Sylmar

A San Fernando Valley developer is planning a five-story, Transit Oriented Communities project in Sylmar.

The application comes from developer Albert Gonzalez, who filed through an entity created for the project. The application reached planning department records in late October.

The mixed-use project is slated for the 12500 block of North San Fernando Road, about half a mile northwest of the Sylmar/San Fernando Metrolink station. Records show that Gonzalez has owned the 1.2-acre site since at least 2005; it currently hosts a vacant commercial building that first went up in the 1940s.

Gonzalez intends to demolish that and build a 100-unit apartment complex with a parking structure. In line with TOC incentives, the L.A. program that allows for certain density and other zoning exemptions for projects located near public transit, the complex would include eight units designated for extremely low income tenants.

The 134,000-square-foot complex will feature 45 one-bedroom apartments and 55 two-bedroom apartments, according to planning documents.

Sylmar, the suburban northern City of L.A. neighborhood that’s perhaps best known for its proximity to the devastating 1971 earthquake, has for years served as an important industrial and warehouse center. More recently, along with other farther out, relatively affordable suburbs of the San Fernando Valley, the neighborhood has attracted attention from multifamily developers, including one who filed for a large all-affordable project earlier this year.