A newly filed lawsuit seeks to force L.A. city leaders to stop an alleged “covert thwarting” of a controversial housing development in Venice that the city council first approved two years ago.
The suit was filed late Wednesday in L.A. County Superior Court by the law firm Public Counsel on behalf of the advocacy group L.A. Forward and three Venice residents.
The suit centers on Venice Dell, a hotly contested project that’s one of the largest planned Westside housing proposals for unhoused people and people with low incomes. City leaders approved an agreement in June 2022 to develop the 140-unit project, before subsequent approvals allegedly stalled amid community pushback.
The project appeared to be “experiencing a delay in processing” by the city, according to a February 2024 letter from the state housing department to the city.
The suit alleges two top city elected officials — Councilmember Traci Park and City Attorney Heidi Feldstein Soto — have covertly and illegally thwarted the project since taking office in late 2022, despite the city’s stated goals to expand affordable housing across L.A.
The lawsuit claims Park and Felstein Soto are discriminating against people of color and people with disabilities in violation of fair housing laws and equal protection under the state Constitution.
It also claims that halting work on the project has a disproportionate impact on people of color’s ability to access housing.
“Most alarmingly, Councilmember Park and the City Attorney seek to defeat the Project not by democratic means in the City Council, but to use their offices to tie the Project up in red tape outside of public view,” the suit…
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