The City Council voted to approve resolution 25-52, authorizing a second amendment to the ground lease and related agreements for the Norwalk Entertainment District project (the WALK) with PrimeStore Norwalk Entertainment LLC.

Economic development staff described the site as approximately 13.2 acres at the southeast corner of Imperial Highway and Norwalk Boulevard, with a planned mix of uses that staff summarized as roughly 374 residential units, about 94,000 square feet of commercial space and a 119,000-square-foot ground-floor publicly accessible plaza that will be privately maintained. Staff also said the second amendment formally removes an affordable-housing parcel from the leased premises to support separate financing for that parcel, increases the area under lease to incorporate land adjacent to City Hall (about 5,615 square feet) for inclusion in the project’s publicly accessible plaza, and establishes CC&Rs that set maintenance responsibilities and an annual review process for operating-expense offsets.

Alex Hamilton, the city’s presenter, said PrimeStore will receive a rent credit of $500,000 in year one and $397,000 in year two (totaling $897,000) to offset developer entitlement costs and public-outreach expenses incurred during the project’s planning and entitlement. Hamilton described typical CC&R structures for shared common areas and noted final offset amounts will be subject to an annual reconciliation between the city and PrimeStore.

A resident speaker raised concerns that the amendment would convert grass and trees behind City Hall into paved plazas and parking and asked for plain-language materials to explain the project documents. Brian Tindle said the project website and materials appeared to show primarily concrete and predicted a loss of existing green space. The council heard the comment and proceeded to a roll-call vote; the resolution passed on a unanimous vote.

Resolution: The council approved resolution 25-52 and authorized the city manager to execute the second amendment to the ground lease, easement agreement, CC&Rs and ancillary documents in form approved by the city attorney.