Spatial Experiences: This project is conceived as a series of carefully curated spatial experiences where the units are organized around a range of public and semi-public open spaces.   

Highly Contextual Response: An active commercial frontage defines the edge of La Habra.  A stunningly detailed tower feature anchors and turns the corner to a residential scaled and detailed facade.  The edges of the development are carefully massed to respect the single-story residential context.  The proposed single-family residence incorporates a respectful transition into the residential context on Rigsby Street.

Diversity of Housing Options: True to an authentic village, the proposal incorporates a rich variety of building and housing types — both for sale and rent.   Each unit, whether single-family, duplex, triplex, townhouse or courtyard housing, will have access to public and private open space that celebrates individual privacy while promoting social capital.

Shared Space: As in a traditional village, the internal street (woonerf) will be designed to serve as a linear social space, that supports walking, biking, and kids playing in the streets, but will be scaled and constructed to allow emergency vehicles and other vehicle access.  Benefits of shared space include reduced driving speeds, increased level of safety, more efficient use of space, increased socialization, enhanced property values, more attractive streetspace, and increased pervious surfaces.  Features of this shared space will include: clear and distinct entrance, no continuous curb,  traffic calming measures, on-street parking, public art, outdoor furnishings and landscaping.

General Plan & Zoning: The General Plan recommends “high activity centers” designed as mixed-use pedestrian oriented “urban villages” for underutilized sites along the arterials.  The existing zoning of the site is C-2 (Commercial).  C-2 allows for a 4-story (50 foot tall) building with an FAR of 30%. The “high activity, urban village” would require a general plan amendment from Professional Office (PO) to Mixed-Use Center -2 (MUC-2).  We propose replacing the C-2 zoning with a MUC-2 that includes a place-based code that fosters contextual and predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form as the organizing principle for the code.

Parking: The single-family residence, duplex, triples, and townhomes will each have two covered parking spaces. The remaining 26 courtyard units and 7,058 s.f. of commercial spaces will share a total of 49 parking spaces.  These spaces will be unbundled, separating the cost to rent a parking space from the cost to rent an apartment. Six visitor parking will be allocated in the shared space. 14 on-street parking spaces would be available on La Habra Boulevard and Rigsby Street frontages.

TDM: One shared electric vehicle, three shared bikes, three transit passes will be available to village residents.

Net Zero Buildings: All buildings in this development will be Zero Net Energy (ZNE). We believe ZNE buildings are more comfortable, healthier, and would have more value when sold or rented. A three-step approach will:

• Reduce the amount of energy a home or business uses through passive and efficient envelope design strategies, day lighting, as appropriate, and application of highly energy-efficient technologies including lighting, HVAC, and controls.
• Optimize the way the building actually operates and how people use it, including management of plugged-in devices and system controls.
• Install photovoltaic (PV) panels on-site to meet the remaining energy needs of the building.