Construction crews have taken over a compact lot one block north of the L.A. River in Studio City, where a five-story fully affordable apartment building is now moving ahead. The project will replace two single-family homes with roughly 86 income-restricted units in a neighborhood that has seen only a handful of affordable developments in recent years.
Project details
As reported by Urbanize LA, the site at 11031–11035 W. Aqua Vista Street was approved in 2024 for a five-story building with 86 studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments and no on-site parking. Urbanize LA also notes that the Department of Building and Safety has issued construction permits, clearing the way for demolition and early site work.
Project listings and contractor materials identify Ryan Sassounian of Aqua Vista Builders, LLC as the applicant and Kevin Tsai Architecture as the project’s designer. The City of Los Angeles planning site explains that Executive Directive 1 (ED1) speeds up review for 100 percent affordable housing projects, a program the applicant used to streamline entitlements, according to the city’s housing policy guidance. For additional technical background on the development, see ACE MEP Group.
What it means for Studio City
Studio City has seen a steady stream of ED1 proposals lately, especially along Moorpark Street and nearby river-adjacent blocks. The Aqua Vista project joins that growing pipeline and could help nudge more change along the corridor south of Ventura Boulevard, where older low-rise properties are increasingly giving way to denser housing.
As Urbanize LA notes, the neighborhood is also in line for larger mixed-use redevelopments that would add hundreds of homes on top of new retail, potentially reshaping how this part of the Valley looks and feels over the next several years.
Permits, rules and parking
State density-bonus law and follow-up measures such as AB 2345 allow developers of income-restricted rental housing to request reduced or even zero minimum vehicular parking in specific situations, which can cut construction costs and support transit-oriented planning. The legal framework for those parking waivers is detailed in the California bill text and is used alongside the city’s ED1 streamlining to move projects from approval to building-permit status more quickly; see AB 2345.
Neither the developer nor the city has released a public completion timeline yet. Project materials show the parcel was previously marketed as a development opportunity and now appears to be shifting into active construction. For background on the property’s marketing and sale history, see PartnersCRE. For additional context on where this project sits within the broader regional multifamily pipeline, see the Northmarq Southern California pipeline.
