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…
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