Like many cities in the United States, Los Angeles has experienced a re-emergence of housing markets in its inner-city areas. Many of these areas are older manufacturing and industrial districts with ‘loft’ type buildings that artists and others have sought to convert to housing. Two adjacent property owners in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles joined together in anticipation of working with the City of Los Angeles on a new specific plan, ultimately adopted as the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan. The city’s goal for the specific plan was to encourage the retention of jobs while allowing for housing conversions and infill. The property owners saw an opportunity to work with the city in mapping out improvements and legitimizing density trade-offs as incentives to property owners to retain employment while permitting housing within their holdings.

The River Town plan creates a new regional center within a strong framework of public open space connections, amenities, and urban institutions. It provides a ‘land use bridge’ linking the traditional culturally and geographically separate east and west sides of the city. The plan for the owners’ properties anticipated zoning provisions and design guidelines that eventually became public policies, as planning for the properties was integrally tied to the public planning processes. River Town orients towards the Los Angeles River and proposes a new mixed-use neighborhood with a balance of jobs and housing, accessible open space, neighborhood parks, festive plazas, retail and community services, and a sensitive relationship with the existing environment and communities.