Church alters parking plans

Some good news (we hope) regarding Angelus Temple’s plan to build a giant parking structure between the Temple and businesses along Sunset Boulevard. In a recent meeting with EPHS, church officials indicated that they now plan to build the multi-level structure along Glendale Boulevard, sparing, at least for now, several old buildings along Lemoyne Street. This is an option the EPHS has suggested in previous meetings.

Locating the parking structure along Glendale Blvd. would still require the demolition of some church-owned buildings from the 1940s (they already demolished an older apartment court). However, keeping the parking garage on Glendale Blvd. (already a busy highway fronted by similar large commercial structures) would preserve the small-scale, older buildings on Lemoyne Street, which forms a pedestrian-friendly link between Echo Park Lake and the Sunset Boulevard business district. This plan would give the church the parking it craves and help preserve the area’s historic fabric.

In another encouraging sign, EPHS president Kevin Kuzma and EPHS member Matthew Pope have been meeting with an Angelus Temple contractor working on several buildings the church owns nearby (Angelus Temple is perhaps Echo Park’s single largest property owner) to inform them on building materials and designs that fit in with the neighborhood’s historic character.