City of LA sued after council says no to fast-tracking affordable housing proposal

The city of Los Angeles is being sued after the City Council refused to let a developer use L.A.’s fast-track approval option for 100% affordable housing projects to build a seven-story apartment that would back up to a single-family neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.

The lawsuit filed on Tuhoesday, Jan. 9, by the non-profit Yes In My Back Yard, or YIMBY, is the latest in a debate about whether a developer can use Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Directive 1 to tap into a fast approval process to build large 100% affordable housing projects in single-family neighborhoods and in other low-density areas.

Bass issued her directive, known as ED1, during her first week in office in late 2022 as a way to address L.A.’s affordable housing and homelessness crises.

The intent wasn’t to allow a fast-track process in which developers could propose such massive projects in single-family neighborhoods. But the mayor’s initial wording did not explicitly state that developers couldn’t do so.

In June, Bass updated her directive to close the loophole. But by then the city had several applications – all in the San Fernando Valley – from developers seeking to build multi-story affordable housing projects in single-family areas.

In October, the City Council denied one developer’s plan – a seven-story, 360-unit apartment at 8217 Winnetka Ave. in Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s West Valley council district – to use the streamlined approval process. The council’s decision did not prevent the developer from using the city’s normal, slower review process.

Blumenfield did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday, but in October he said, “The project in question is a high-density, multi-family project on a single-family zoned lot. … The intent of ED1, again, was not to include single-family zones, and the mayor clarified this.”

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by YIMBY and Bedrock Properties Group, identified as the project applicant, alleges that their application – and others submitted before the mayor amended her executive directive – have vesting rights. They say the developer qualifies for expedited review using Bass’ ED1 rule before she changed it.

“Los Angeles can’t keep delaying affordable housing,” Sonja Trauss, executive director at YIMBY Law, said in a statement. “We’ve spoken with them about the legal and moral implications of going back on their own policy. The city still broke the law, and now they have to be held accountable.”

The ED1 concept that Bass embraced can save developers tens of thousands of dollars in permitting fees, and it exempts them from some environmental studies and public hearings.

In other words, by not going through a typical Planning Commission review, developers save time and money — and feel that their projects face less risk of being killed during the city’s complicated “discretionary review process.”

The California Department of Housing and Community Development indicated in a letter to the city last fall that it believes the developers have vesting rights. But the city’s planning department and mayor’s office don’t agree.

A representative for the city attorney’s office told the City Council in September that it considered the state’s opinion “persuasive at most, not binding.”

A spokesperson for City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office declined to comment on this week’s lawsuit, saying the office does not comment on pending litigation.

During the Oct. 13 council meeting, before the City Council voted 10-1 to deny the developer’s request to remain on the fast track, Blumenfield urged his colleagues to reject the request.

He also told the Los Angeles Daily News that day that the planning department considered the application incomplete and, therefore, ineligible for fast-tracked approval.

“Fear of litigation shouldn’t be a reason to approve projects with incomplete applications, and that are not a good fit in a community,” Blumenfield said.

This week’s lawsuit challenges the city’s position that the application was incomplete.