SoCal City Submits Plan to Build Massive 305-Acre Mixed-Use District

The City of Pico Rivera, Calif., wants to reimagine itself as a commercial and transportation hub, and is planning a massive new mixed-use project to help reach that goal. 

As part of its broader Pico Rivera 2035 initiative, Pico Rivera’s municipal government has submitted an environmental impact report to the state for review for its Washington and Rosemead Boulevards Transit-Oriented Development Specific Plan, which seeks to build up to 2,336 residential units and nearly 5.9 million square feet of commercial space across a 305-acre mixed-use district. Urbanize first reported the news. 

The district is split into zones depending on use. Those include a set of low-rise multifamily properties totaling 420 units with ground-floor commercial space; a set of multifamily properties over 4 stories totaling 784 units with ground-floor commercial space; a set of high-rise multifamily buildings totaling 1,132 units, also with ground-floor commercial components; a separate commercial zone of roughly 1.7 million square feet; an industrial zone of up to 860,000 square feet for wholesale and some manufacturing use; and a 2.5 million-square-foot flex zone for commercial and light industrial use. 

Pico Rivera, a city of roughly 62,000 people, sits 11 miles southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

The city has pursued the district development and its Pico Rivera 2035 plan since at least early 2023. That broader plan calls for the creation of a new commuter rail station for Metrolink’s Orange County Line in Pico Rivera as an infill stop between Los Angeles and Anaheim. The plan also calls for improvements to the city’s Rio Hondo and L.A. River bike paths and a new bus path along Rosemead and Lakewood Boulevards to improve public transit.

Pico Rivera’s planning director’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the project. 

The new transit lines aren’t the only ones in the works in L.A. County. In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a nearly $900 million grant to L.A. Metro toward the construction of the light rail East San Fernando Valley Line, a long-awaited Metro expansion stretching from Van Nuys to San Fernando with 11 new stations. The project — the total cost of which is $3.6 billion — is estimated to deliver by 2031, three years later than the 2028 delivery date Metro had originally envisioned as in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.