Tag Archive for: Durbin project

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Dear Echo Park Now: Enough with the construction noise!

Fellow Echo Parkian Adrian is having some problems with the Durbin Project construction lately – the condo project once known as “smurf village” at Chicken Corner on Echo Park Avenue and Delta (right by Chango). The blue treated wood that stood as the skeleton for a project that stopped dead in 2009 is now gone since D.R. Horton bought the property and started construction just recently.

Unfortunately for Adrian and his family, the new construction isn’t exactly a 100% a welcome addition to the neighborhood. Construction starts at 6:00 am despite city noise ordinances that require quiet hours for construction through 7:00 am. To make matters worse, Adrian has called the LAPD non-emergency line to complain, with promises to send officers left unfulfilled.

We’ve recommended to Adrian to call 311, or continue to call the LAPD non-emergency line (1-877-275-5273) and file a noise complaint if possible – and Adrian would like to invite all of his neighbors to do the same. “My family,” he told us in an email, “can’t be the only one in the area missing some much needed sleep.”

We also recommend contacting Council District 13, Eric Garcetti’s office, particularly because they should have direct contact with the developers and the project as a whole.

And, just for good measure, it doesn’t hurt making a complaint to the project manager on duty during those wee hours – who cares if you’re still in those PJs?

UPDATE:

The Eastsider LA just reported the new, new name for the project will be “36 on Echo” (this is third name, third owner), and that the Senior Vice President of D.R. Horton said he’ll be looking into noise complaints.

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Rumor Mill: Durbin Project at Chicken Corner finally bought?

An announcement at last night’s Echo Park Improvement Association meeting (which I am a member of) hinted that the notorious weed-pit known as the Durbin Project has finally been bought!

The 36-condo complex located at 1601-1633 Echo Park Avenue (near Chicken Corner) broke ground in 2008, with plans to open in Summer 2009. Work completely stopped in March 2009 when financer IndyMac went under, and since then, it’s been a weedy unsightly mess.

With potentially new owners, it’s not clear whether work will continue, whether it will turn into a new project (hopefully not one that’s bigger), nor when anything will happen, but we’ve got our eyes and ears open and will let you know when we know more.

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Finally! Durbin Project Gets a Little Facelift

Photo via The Eastsider LA

Huzzah!

Residents have been complaining for a while now about the weed build-up in and around the Durbin Project on Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street. We recently received an update from Eric Garcetti’s office that the developers were going to clean up all those weeds – and the Eastsider LA is reporting that they finally have!

According to the article, “a small crew of workers returned to the long-delayed Durbin condo project in Echo Park this morning.” Let’s hope they got all the weeds around the sidewalks, and maybe even fixed the buckling fencing along the property’s border.

Click here for the full article.

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Weeds got you down? Durbin Project Overgrowth

We received an email the other day from an Echo Park resident about his frustrations with the human-sized weeds growing along Echo Park Avenue’s Durbin project. The weeds, he writes, are “DRIVING ME CRAZY!” So much, that he’s willing to borrow your weed eater and take care of it himself.

Unfortunately, it seems the only progress that’s being made are the weeds. There haven’t been any recent updates on the status of the Durbin project, located along Echo Park Avenue and Delta Street. For those of you who are new to the area or this issue, a Mount Washington-based developer sold the property to the Angeles Group in late 2006. The ground breaking ceremony was held in 2008, and the project supposed to be completed in April 2009. Since the financial crisis, the property is now owned by OneWest Bank, and so far there’s no word on any plans to finish or clean up the project.

Durbin project rendering

One Echo Park resident commented on a recent Eastsider LA article about the property, saying they had emailed the Angeles Group, and the response they got from the group’s Adam O’Neill is as follows:

I absolutely understand your frustration. This property is totally in the hands of OneWest Bank. I am forwarding your email to them right now. OneWest made a sweetheart deal with the government and we have tried to work this out with the bank and have been unsuccessful as they have little motivation. Their incentive is not to work it out. It is terrible what the bank has done and we truly have tried to do everything in our power but our efforts have fallen on deaf ears. The local council office has been involved and are working through their channels to get the bank to take some action.

What can we do about the weeds, debris, and buckling fencing? First off, please email Eric Garcetti’s office and ask them to put pressure on OneWest Bank to clean things up. You can also join the community for an Echo Park cleanup, to be held the first Saturday of every month, meeting in the Walgreens parking lot (more information to come soon!).

Community volunteers and leaders are working to get the Durbin project cleaned up and finished up. If you would like to go an extra step and help out, come to an Echo Park Improvement Association meeting, a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or join other community meetings to see what you can do. Click here for our calendar to learn when these meetings are happening.

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