Three radio towers still stand on a 19-acre field of dirt on Burbank Boulevard, between Bellaire and Coldwater Canyon avenues. KMPC 710 started broadcasting from them on September 19, 1942, at 10,000 watts. When Disney sold the KSPN license to Good Karma Brands in 2021, it kept the land. In September 2022 the station moved off the site, which ended 80 years of broadcasting there. The towers have been switched off ever since.
On September 29, 2026, Regent Properties filed plans with Los Angeles City Planning to build 303 for-sale homes on the field. Nearly all of that land had been zoned for low-density single-family housing. Getting from one to the other took two planning documents that disagree with each other, plus 14 homes.
The zoning map is not the ceiling
The city's case record describes the site as falling in the RD3-1 and R1-1 zones. The Los Angeles Business Journal reported that only about two acres near Burbank Boulevard carried the denser zoning, which allows homes on roughly 3,000-square-foot lots. The rest was single-family.
Above the zoning sits the North Hollywood–Valley Village Community Plan, and the plan designates the site Low Medium I Residential. Regent's position is that this designation covers all 821,673 square feet of the lot. Under that reading, the base comes to 274 homes before any bonus.
Anyone shopping on the streets around this field should take one thing from this. A parcel's zoning tells you what can be built there by default. The community plan designation, read together with state law, can tell you something larger. This is also the parcel where the neighborhood's name gets slippery. The coverage calls it Valley Village, but the city's case page places the address in the Greater Valley Glen neighborhood council area, in Council District 2.
Fourteen homes do most of the work
The 274-home base gets to 303 through California's density bonus law, Government Code §65915. That law gives qualifying projects that set aside affordable housing a density bonus, incentives, and waivers of development standards that would otherwise physically preclude the project. Regent's application sets aside 14 of the homes for very low-income buyers, which qualifies it for an 11% bonus and a total of 303.
Those 14 homes add only 29 units to the total. Their larger effect is that they open the door to incentives and waivers, and the waivers decide what the place will physically look like. The city's case page lists an off-menu incentive to average floor area across the site, plus a dozen waivers of development standards. Here are the ones that matter to a house hunter:
| Standard | What the code requires | What Regent is requesting |
|---|---|---|
| Floor area across the site | 514,550 sq ft, 0.65 FAR | 688,545 sq ft, 0.86 FAR |
| Height in the R1 zone | 33 feet | 43 feet |
| Minimum R1 lot size | 5,000 sq ft | 4,000 sq ft |
| Minimum R1 lot width | 50 feet | 42 feet |
| R1 front yard on Bellaire | 20 feet | 14 feet |
| R1 front yard on Hatteras | 17.24-foot prevailing setback | 14 feet |
| R1 side yard | 6 feet | 5 feet |
| RD3 side yard | 10 feet | 5 feet |
| Building separation | 12 feet | 10 feet |
The floor-area waiver adds about 174,000 square feet over what the code allows, roughly a third more. Spread evenly across 303 homes, the requested total averages out to about 2,270 square feet of floor area per home. Regent told the city that without the waivers, existing standards would make the project infeasible.
The application also asks the city to waive any front, side, or rear yards between interior lot lines on the subdivided condo lots. That waiver tells you the most about what the interior will be like to live in. Inside the site, the setbacks Valley Village buyers are used to give way to a tighter grain. Narrow lots, ten feet between buildings, and shared walls on the duplexes and townhomes are the trade that makes 303 homes fit.
Why the rules are unlikely to move underneath it
The case number ends in "VHCA." City Planning's glossary of case suffixes defines that as Vesting Housing Crisis Act, tied to SB 330. The California Department of Housing and Community Development explains that an SB 330 preliminary application lets a housing developer "freeze" the fees and development standards that apply to the project while it assembles the full application.
Environmental review runs on a separate track. Regent's project FAQ says the company intends to use a CEQA exemption under AB 130, and that the city will review whether the project meets the exemption's requirements. LABJ's reporting describes the affordable set-aside as the feature that lets Regent seek both the density bonus and a CEQA exemption. Developers often want that exemption because it avoids the long delays and litigation that can come with the state's environmental review process.
So the tools in this filing were chosen for certainty. The design is still subject to city review, but the plan was built to lock its rules in early.
The edges were drawn for the neighbors
The site plan has a deliberate shape. Rows of two-story homes run along the western, northern, and eastern edges, next to the existing single-family houses. The three-story homes sit in the interior and along Burbank Boulevard, which is already lined with three-story apartment buildings. The main entrance would be on Bellaire Avenue, with a second on Hatteras Street. The requested 43-foot height and the 14-foot front yards on Bellaire and Hatteras apply in the R1 zone.
Parking runs above the minimum. The FAQ puts it at 727 stalls, about 2.4 per home and 81 more than the city code requires. The application also requests haul route approval. The project also includes a publicly accessible park, which LABJ reported at 20,500 square feet and the FAQ describes as about half an acre. Its programming has not been set.
For a buyer weighing a house on Bellaire, Hatteras, or the blocks just off Coldwater Canyon, the plan creates a specific set of questions to put to the seller and the disclosures. Which edge does the house face? What would sit behind its rear fence? And which street would construction traffic use?
What the land price says about the homes
Regent bought the site in 2025 for $72.6 million, about $3.8 million per acre. Commercial Observer reported on July 25, 2025 that the seller was an ABC affiliate, that Newmark arranged the deal, and that the parcel had been marketed to housing investors for years.
Divided across 303 homes, the purchase price works out to roughly $240,000 of land per home, before anything is built. That figure is the economic reason for every waiver in the table. At 274 homes, each one carries more land cost. At the code's 0.65 FAR, each home carries more land cost per square foot it can sell. Regent's spokesperson declined to tell LABJ how the project will be financed or whether a construction loan is in place.
What the site would add is unusual for the area. Recent large approvals nearby have been rentals. The city approved Joseph Samuel's mixed-use apartment project at 12500 Riverside Drive on May 7, 2025. The city's case summary counts 218 units and Urbanize LA's tracker counts 219. Regent's 303 homes would all be for sale, in single-family homes, duplexes, and townhomes. In a part of the Valley where new ownership housing on this scale rarely appears, that is the actual change. Regent's chief investment officer, Sam Kraus, told LABJ the company wants "a welcoming and lasting community where families can put down roots."
Where the clock actually stands
As of this week, the case is at the very beginning. The dates on the record and the applicant's own projections:
- September 29, 2026. Case CPC-2026-5045-DB-PR-VHCA filed.
- September 30, 2026. Assigned to planner Phillip Bazan. The case shows no accepted-for-review date, no hearing date, and no approved documents.
- 2028, projected. Construction starts, including removal of the deactivated towers, and runs about 30 months. Regent notes the date is subject to change.
- 2029, projected. Grand opening, with homes offered for sale closer to that date.
A 2028 start plus a 30-month build runs past 2029, and the FAQ does not say whether that opening date refers to a first phase or to the finished site. Everything after item two is a projection from the applicant, not a schedule the city has approved.
A Short FAQ
Is the project approved? No. The city record shows a filed application with no hearing date and no approved documents.
Who can buy the affordable homes? According to Regent's FAQ, they are priced below market using income limits tied to Area Median Income. Buyers must qualify and live in the home as their primary residence, and the home stays affordable for future buyers. The FAQ links to the city's 2026 income limits.
Will the towers stay? The FAQ says construction would include removing the deactivated radio towers.
How do I follow the case? Search case number CPC-2026-5045-DB-PR-VHCA on City Planning's case information page. Regent also takes update sign-ups and questions at [email protected].
This post is general information about a pending application and the laws it cites. It is not legal or financial advice, so please confirm how any rule applies to your own property with the right professional.
If you're weighing a home near Bellaire, Hatteras, or Coldwater Canyon, how a house sits against a plan like this one matters as much as the house itself. That means which edge it faces, what could rise behind it, and how construction would reach the site. Joan Duffy spent years as a home builder before her decades in Valley real estate, and she would be glad to walk the street with you and read the site plan alongside the listing. Let's Connect.
