ASCE Los Angeles Section

Los Angeles, California

The $180 million Taylor Yard Transit Village Master Plan consists of five distinct development phases that include 401 housing units, approximately 30,000 square feet of retail space. and 2.5 acres of open space across 16.3 total acres. Part of a former rail facility owned and operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad, the Taylor Yard Transit Village is the first large-scale river-front development to be developed along the Los Angeles River’s edge in the City of Los Angeles, benefiting from the improvements envisioned in the River Revitalization Plan. These improvements include the adjacent, recently-completed Río de Los Angeles State Park, a 40-acre regional park that offers both active and passive recreational opportunities for the community.

The site is located in the working-class community of Cypress Park in the City of Los Angeles and the final site plan was based on the preferred alternative as selected by the local community and ultimately supported by the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council.

The master plan earned a LEED Neighborhood Development Silver rating from the US Green Building Council and the plan was developed in collaboration with Metro planners to accommodate facilities for a future rail station connecting Downtown Los Angeles to the cities of Burbank and Glendale and into the San Fernando Valley.

The overall development is a public-private partnership between McCormack Baron Salazar and LA County Metro Transit Agency. Development and financing of the site’s 100% new infrastructure was provided through a $15 million grant from the 2009 State of California Proposition 1C Infill Infrastructure Grant program. Predevelopment financing was provided by the Enterprise Foundation.

The Development
Prior to redevelopment, this former rail facility known as Parcel C was cleared of all rail infrastructure and underwent soil remediation to allow for residential and commercial redevelopment. Predevelopment financing for planning efforts and feasibility studies was provided by the Enterprise Foundation and by New Economics for Women. Ultimately, a $15 million award from the State of California Infill Infrastructure Grant Program provided the redevelopment catalyst by providing financing to construct new site-wide infrastructure including main electrical distribution, natural gas and water mains, stormwater reclamation systems, streets, sidewalks and other infrastructure needed to support the proposed master plan. Construction of the master plan commenced in 2013 and currently includes 155 affordable rental homes for families with 42 additional units under construction; 41 homeownership units with 54 additional units under construction, and 108 affordable rental homes for seniors currently under construction.

Housing
At ultimate build out, Taylor Yard will include more than 400 dwelling units, 197 that are affordable family, 108 that are affordable senior, and 95 that are conventionally funded. The Rio Vista Apartments include 87 affordable rental homes for families and is certified by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) as a Gold Level LEED for Homes building. The Taylor Yard Apartments consists of 68 affordable rental units for families and is certified by the USGBC as a Gold Level LEED for Homes building. Taylor Yard Senior Housing is a mixed-use development that consists of 108 affordable rental units for senior citizens located over 8,500 square feet of retail space and a subterranean parking garage. It was designed to garner USGBC LEED Multifamily-Midrise certification. LA Urban Homes is developing 95 duplex lots and detached market rate homes.

Sustainability
The Taylor Yard Village master plan is certified by the US Green Building Council as a LEED for Neighborhood Development for its new urbanist design principles and innovative design features. A key sustainability system is the installation of underground storage tanks to harvest and filter rainwater in order to be re-used on site for landscape irrigation, which is projected to save over 125,850 gallons of potable water each year. This rainwater harvesting system is supplemented by the use of recycled water provided by the City of Los Angeles in an effort to conserve natural resources and promote sustainable development within the City.

The design of Taylor Yard Village encourages mode-shift in all of its details – with strong, safe pedestrian connections between homes and the other amenities in the community, with access to bike and walking trails, and, ultimately, with access to the region through Metro’s transit system.

The Taylor Yard Transit Village project presented unique stormwater retention and treatment challenges due to the project’s close proximity to the Los Angeles River and the complexities with regards to its history as a rail yard. We needed to meet local stormwater retention sizing requirements while maximizing the green open space available to the community. The City of Los Angeles promotes Low Impact Development (LID) design so we evaluated infiltration/ground water recharge to meet the stormwater regulations first, however infiltration was not a viable option for some portions of the site, therefore it was determined that rainwater harvesting would be utilized to retain the water onsite. This had the long term benefit of reducing the potable water demand for the site’s drip irrigation system, which is especially beneficial in light of the current drought conditions in the region.

Ultimately, we designed a unique hybrid rainwater harvesting/detention system with pretreatment and overflow treatment. A rainwater harvesting system was installed beneath an open space park on-site that includes a 120-inch diameter steel reinforced polyethylene cistern that is designed to hold 168,300 gallons of harvested rainwater. A second watertight 144-inch diameter aluminized metal pipe cistern with a watertight coating that holds 36,375 gallons of water was installed beneath the adjacent open space park. The harvested rain water will be used for drip irrigation on-site. Both systems have pretreatment units that remove sediment, trash, oil, and grease from stormwater runoff.

If the cistern and detention system became full, water overflows to the peak diversion storm filter where it receives polishing treatment before discharging to the public storm drain system. The system works by passing polluted stormwater runoff through filter cartridges designed to remove trash, sediment, oil, nutrients and heavy metals from stormwater runoff.

The rainwater harvesting system was designed to irrigate roughly 50,000 square feet of landscaping and save more than 248,650 gallons of potable water per year.

The Taylor Yard Transit Village is a LEED-Neighborhood Development pilot program which integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design. The program emphasizes elements that bring buildings and infrastructure together and relates the neighborhood to its local and regional landscape.

Eugene Lee, Chief of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) was impressed with what the team accomplished. He said he is going to promote this project as a “showcase” for what HCD wants included in future publicly-funded housing projects in California.

Special Relationships generated: Friends of the LA River – in regards to ensuring the project contributed aesthetically to the long-term revitalization of the LA River that is taking place; LA Metro New Business Development, Real Property and Economic Development – to ensure the project provided for the future opportunity to place a metro rail transit station along the property to serve the community and to extend the current bus routing options. Any others shown on the Ribbon cutting pdf?

Obstacles Overcome: We overcame the apparent hurdle of being unable to contribute to the recharging of the ground water table by instead storing the storm water run-off in detention tanks for use by the project’s landscape drip irrigation system. Potable irrigation demand was further reduced by working with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to route a recycled water system through the site to supplement the stored water in providing landscape irrigation. Additionally, by continued coordination with the Environmental Consultant, Geotechnical Engineering Consultant, and the LA River Area Watermaster we were able to locate two areas on the project site which would allow for ground water recharge as well.

Taylor Yard brings together the best elements of a multi-phased, mixed-income and mixed-generational master planned community to life through a successful public-private partnership to promote development adjacent to Metro transit facilities. Sustainable practices, including a unique rainwater harvesting system, will conserve natural resources and promote sustainable development.

Taylor Yard Village is a multi-phased, mixed-income and mixed generational master planned community designed with new urbanist principles to promote walkable streets and sustainable design. The former Southern Pacific Railroad facility, which spans over 16 acres, is located in the Cypress Park Community of the City of Los Angeles and will be redeveloped with up to 400 new homes, approximately 25,000 square feet of retail space and over 1½ acres of green space designed for community walking trails, public art and native landscaping that complements the site’s proximity to the Los Angeles River. The Taylor Yard Village is the result of a successful public-private partnership between the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and McCormack Baron Salazar with the goal of promoting increased ridership by developing mixed-use developments adjacent to Metro transit facilities.

Taylor Yard Transit Village presented unique stormwater retention and treatment challenges due to the project’s close proximity to the Los Angeles River and the complexities with regards to its history as a rail yard. We needed to meet local stormwater retention sizing requirements while maximizing the available land space. The City of Los Angeles promotes LID design so we looked at infiltration to meet the stormwater regulations first, but when it became clear that infiltration was not a viable option for some portions of the site, we turned to rainwater harvesting to retain the water onsite. This had the long term benefit of reducing the potable water demand for the site’s irrigation system, which is projected to save more than 125,850 gallons of potable water each year. This rainwater harvesting system is supplemented by the use of recycled water provided by the City of Los Angeles in an effort to conserve natural resources and promote sustainable development within the City.