What Council Members Are Thinking Going into Tonight’s Early Meeting

City Councilman Steve Rose said this afternoon that residents who are advocating less dense housing in redevelopment projects and more affordable costs for each unit are walking — nose first — into a big, fat problem.

A businessman cannot slash the number of units and the price in the same swing, Mr. Rose said, or he won’t have any profit left.

Early Meeting Tonight

These are among subjects on the minds of the City Council going into tonight’s closely watched 6 o’clock study session. At the beginning, Council members will just sit and listen. City Hall staffers will advance new proposed limits for height and housing density for future — and perhaps contemporary — redevelopment projects.

Throughout the spring and summer, community members have been screaming at City Hall that the current redevelopments in at least two and perhaps three locations are too tall and too large or dense.

Wrong Numbers

Specifically, neighbors from near and far have been complaining loudly that City Hall’s present code limits — 65 housing units per acre and a 56-foot height maximum — are too large for their little hometown.

And they are being heard. Following a series of thunderous outbursts during four meetings with the Citizens Advisory Committee on the loosely organized redevelopment of South Sepulveda Boulevard, partisans, with a large boost from Committee member Dr. Loni Anderson, managed to get the project mothballed for the foreseeable future.

Hero’s Mantle for Malsin?

Councilman Scott Malsin, who doubles as Chair of the Redevelopment Agency, is emerging as a hero of the people.

He ignited the present campaign to not only review but actually tinker with and change — downsize — the height and the massing numbers. He announced weeks ago that, apparently he alone among Council members, has carefully examined the numbers and the intricate concepts of the zoning code since last October.

As a result, he probably has been cheered more than any Council member this summer.

Will the audience be cheering the recommendations, though, at the end of tonight’s study session?

Going into the hour-earlier-than-usual meeting, many people are excited, but few seem to know what to expect. Keeping an air-sealed lid on the contents of the agenda, it is now known whether staffers — or the Council — will continue to favor the present one-co-de-for-all-projects policy or tailor the numbers by the type of development and the type of neighborhood.

“A mess,” said one veteran inside of Ciuty Hall.