Robert Green Moves Ahead With 74 apartments in Mar Vista

Developer Robert Green has moved forward with controversial plans to raze a former church to build 74 apartments in Mar Vista.

Green was approved by the Los Angeles Planning Commission to build the six-story complex at 12124 West Pacific Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The unnamed church, built in the 1920s, would be demolished.

Plans call for a 94,600-square-foot building with 74 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, with parking for 122 cars in an underground and ground-level garage.

The developer will use density bonus incentives to build a larger complex than zoning rules allow in exchange for setting aside 11 units for very low-income households.

The E-shaped project, designed by Mika Design Group and Robert James Taylor Architects, will be clad in gray, white and brown, with box-shaped balconies with green accents. It will include second-story and rooftop decks.

The development was opposed by residents who signed two petitions that cited increased traffic along a block already packed with a post office, library and fire station, not far from two elementary schools, a large apartment building and lumber yard.

The second petition cited the building’s zero lot line and height, with privacy issues caused by apartment dwellers looking down onto homes and playgrounds.

The proposed apartment complex sits just south of a busy stretch of shops and restaurants along Venice Boulevard to the north, and a few blocks east of a pair of recently completed projects from LaTerra Development which feature housing and ground-floor retail, according to Urbanize.

In 2019, Green built a 74-unit complex in Palms through the company Frame, based in Mar Vista, which replaced single-family homes and a triplex.

— Dana Bartholomew