The Brief

Homeowners in some pricey corners of Los Angeles have been urging the city to not allow the fast-tracking of plans for new low-income apartments in historic neighborhoods. Such an exemption would further limit efforts to get much-needed affordable housing built quickly.

Now, some local elected leaders are taking up the call, putting forward a proposal to require longer reviews of affordable housing in areas designated for historic preservation.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavksy introduced a motion last Friday that aims to stop the fast-tracking of affordable housing projects in any part of the city identified as an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, or HPOZ.

A new motion calls for historic zones to be expempted fromED1, the city's program to fast track affordable housing. Although the 35 zones, shown in blue overlay on the map, make up a small percentage of areas within L.A., together with other exemption would add up to nearly 80% of L.A. ineligible for building under the fast-track program.

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Courtesy City of L.A.

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Gary Gero, Yaroslavsky’s chief of staff, told LAist, “We're not trying to stop affordable housing developments in historic zones. We really just want them to work with the community, the neighbors, with the historic zone board and with our office to make the project fit better within the context of the neighborhood.”

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass created the city’s fast-tracking program, ED1, during her first week in office with the goal of getting 100% affordable housing projects approved within two months. Since ED1’s launch, developers have proposed more than 16,000 apartments for low- and moderate-income renters. The program allows projects to bypass the sorts of contentious public hearings and lengthy environmental reviews that have delayed new housing in the past.

What sets historic zones apart

A large percentage of the 36 historic designated zones in Los Angeles run along the Wilshire Blvd. corridor.

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Courtesy City of L.A.

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L.A.’s historic zones — deemed by the city to have “distinctive architectural and cultural resources” — represent a small but growing portion of the city. HPOZs cover a combined 8.5 square miles and are home to about 3% of the city’s population, according to a 2020 study commissioned by the Los Angeles Conservancy.

L.A. currently has 36 historic zones, encompassing neighborhoods from mansion-lined Hancock Park to working class Lincoln Heights. Prior to 2000, only eight such zones existed in L.A.

Preservationists say these zones are crucial for protecting L.A.’s living history from hasty development that undermines neighborhoods’ unique characteristics. But some housing advocates say the historic designation process is too often hijacked by NIMBY homeowners aiming to block any new housing affordable to residents with lower incomes.

A case study in Windsor Village

A proposed affordable housing apartment building at 800 S. Lorraine Blvd. in L.A.

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Courtesy L.A. City Planning Dept.

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The current vacant lot where the proposed affordable project would be built.

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Courtesy Google Maps street view

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Yaroslavsky’s motion would ban ED1 projects in historic zones and return new affordable housing projects to the discretion of city council members. Gero said the motion was prompted by one ED1 project in Yaroslavsky’s district at 800 S. Lorraine Blvd, which he called “egregious.”

“It's a refrigerator box,” Gero said. “They did try to gussy it up a little bit to reflect some art deco touches. But it clearly isn't enough.”

Developers behind the project say their plans for a 70-unit building would not remove any historic structures. The current site is a vacant lot. Most apartments would be reserved for renters earning up to 80% of the area’s median income, or $70,650 for a one-person household. The rest would be reserved for renters earning up to 120% of the area’s median income.

“There's just such an enormous benefit to allowing low-income and moderate-income households to move into these areas,” said Gary Benjamin, the project’s land use consultant.

The Lorraine development is located within the Windsor Village HPOZ, an area singled out for preservation due to its concentration of homes built “in the French, English and Spanish Colonial Revival modes” as well as the “Hollywood Regency and Streamline Moderne styles.”

Buying a home in Windsor Village is far out of reach for most Angelenos. One four-bedroom house about a block away from the Lorraine project is currently on the market for $1.75 million.

Benjamin was aware that this project is in an HPOZ. He said the building’s exterior was designed to blend in with the neighborhood. It uses neutral colors and inserts arches into the facade. He said he didn’t expect the neighborhood’s historic designation to become a roadblock under ED1.

“There are other existing multifamily apartment buildings, including several three to four-story apartment buildings in the area,” Benjamin said. “What was so great and promising about ED1 was allowing that certainty — understanding that there are certain objective standards that all projects are required to comply with.”

Why nearby homeowners object to the project

Some homeowners in Windsor Village say the planned six-story building is simply too tall.

“There are wonderful craftsman houses and so forth in the neighborhood,” said Barbara Pflaumer, president of the Windsor Village Association.

“This is a big building,” she said. “It looms over all the other houses in the neighborhood. And it doesn't fit architecturally with what we currently enjoy.”

Pflaumer said neighbors also oppose the project’s lack of on-site parking, a common concern about ED1 projects, which have mostly eschewed room for cars. Housing located near transit stops does not need to provide on-site parking under a 2022 state law.

Growing roadblocks for ED1 projects

Single family residential housing zones, shown here in pink, dominate the city of L.A.

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Courtesy Othering & Belonging

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ED1 opponents have called to stop the fast-tracking of affordable housing in more and more of the city since Mayor Bass launched the program. The largest carve-out came last summer when Bass canceled ED1 projects in areas zoned for single-family homes, which make up 74% of the city’s residential land.

Since then, neighborhood groups have called for rescinding the rules in designated ethnic enclaves such as Sawtelle’s Japantown. City counilmembers have voted to stop ED1 projects on lots with existing rent-controlled housing in some neighborhoods, such as Eagle Rock.

Yaroslavsky’s motion to exempt historic districts from ED1 was seconded by Councilmember Heather Hutt. It has not yet been scheduled for a vote. Representatives from Yaroslavsky’s office expect it to be put on the planning and land use committee’s agenda in coming weeks.

How to watchdog local government

For people who live in L.A., the Board of Supervisors and City Council have the most direct impact on housing affordability in your neighborhood.

• Learn more about who influences local housing policy

The best way to keep tabs on your own local government is by attending public meetings for your city council or local boards. Here are a few tips to get you started.

• Find meeting schedules and agendas: City councils usually meet at least twice a month, although larger ones may meet weekly. Committees and boards tend to meet less often, typically once a month. You can find the schedule and meeting agenda on your local government’s website, or posted physically at your local city hall. Find more tips here.

  • Find L.A. City Council agendas and meeting dates
  • Find meetings for L.A. city boards and commissions
  • Find L.A. County agendas and meeting dates
• Learn the jargon: Closed session, consent calendars and more! We have definitions for commonly used terms here.
• How to give public comment: Every public meeting allows community members to give comment, whether or not it’s about something on the agenda. The meeting agenda will have specific instructions for giving public comment. Review more details here.

A federal judge has ordered Los Angeles to pay more than $1.8 million in attorneys’ fees and costs to the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights and other organizations that sued the city over what it deemed an inadequate response to the homelessness crisis.

The city is appealing the decision.

The details

L.A. Alliance is a group of business owners and residents who sued the city and county of Los Angeles in 2020 in an effort to push both governments to provide more shelter to unhoused people in the region.

The city of L.A. settled with the plaintiffs in 2022, and U.S. District Judge David O. Carter is overseeing the city’s progress in keeping up with the terms of that agreement. The judge found the city breached its agreement in multiple ways in a ruling last summer.

Specifically, the judge found that the city did not provide a plan for how it intends to create 12,915 shelter beds, as promised, by 2027. The court also found the city “flouted” its responsibilities by failing to provide accurate, comprehensive data when requested and did not provide evidence to support the numbers it was reporting, according to court documents.

In addition to $1.6 million in attorneys’ fees and $5,000 in costs to L.A. Alliance, Carter awarded about $200,000 in fees and $160 in costs to the Los Angeles Catholic Worker and Los Angeles Community Action Network.

The organizations are considered “intervenors” in the suit, representing people experiencing homelessness on Skid Row. Their attorneys include those from the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles.

Why it matters

In his order, released Tuesday, Carter compared the recent award to the millions of taxpayer dollars city officials agreed to pay an outside law firm representing L.A. in the settlement.

Carter wrote in the order that the attorneys' fees and costs to L.A. Alliance and others “is reasonable, especially in light of the approximately $5.9 million that the City’s outside counsel is charging.”

LAist’s housing and homelessness coverage was cited several times in the order.

“It has fallen to plaintiff, intervenors, and journalists to point out the deficiencies in the city’s reporting,” Carter wrote, referring to data the city is required to report to the court as part of the settlement.

“Plaintiff and intervenors must be compensated for this,” he said.

The city’s response 

Attorneys representing the city filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Thursday.

L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein-Soto’s office did not respond to LAist’s requests for comment by phone or email.

Shayla Myers, senior attorney with the Unhoused People's Justice Project at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, told LAist the intervenors participated in the case without compensation “because it's incredibly important given what is at stake in these proceedings that unhoused folks have a voice.”

Matthew Umhofer, an attorney for L.A. Alliance, told LAist he’s thrilled the court is imposing accountability on the city, including sanctions for violating the settlement agreement. But Umhofer said he’s saddened that L.A. Alliance is going to have to keep fighting to hold the city to its promises.

“The obvious city strategy here is hire a big, good law firm to fight on absolutely every front in hopes that the plaintiffs, the intervenors or the court will ultimately give up trying to hold the city accountable,” he said.

What's next

The parties are scheduled to appear in federal court in downtown L.A. on Monday, when a hearing will resume to determine whether the judge will hold the city of Los Angeles in contempt of court.

Carter has said in documents that he’s concerned “the city has demonstrated a continuous pattern of delay” in meeting its obligations with court orders under the settlement and that the “delay continues to this day.”

Every January, the open-air downtown food fair reopens after its winter break and announces new additions to its carefully selected group of regular vendors.

This year’s new vendor class demonstrates the resilience of L.A.'s independent food scene, ranging from a Grammy-nominated producer's Persian-influenced pizza to Southern fried fish celebrating Black American culinary traditions, to an LAist 2025 Tournament of Cheeseburger heavyweight contender.

The reopening also marks the start of Smorgasburg LA's 10th anniversary year, and will feature 41 returning vendors, who've helped build the regular event into a fun, family-friendly opportunity to try new, often cutting-edge food you may not be familiar with.

Doors open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at DTLA’s The Row, with free entry and free parking for the first two hours.

A new year

General manager Zach Brooks said this is his favorite time of year. "We add the new vendors at the beginning of the new year, everyone's excited."

Vendors apply through Smorgasburg's website, and the team meets with every applicant to taste their food before acceptance. Brooks said it's not a vetting process like "Shark Tank" but rather a matter of seeing if it's a good fit. Competition remains fierce, with many more applicants than available spots.

"I think it's just a testament to L.A. and the resilience of people who love this business and have a passion for it, and are going to continue to persevere and start their businesses and want to be out there selling food," Brooks said.

Here are a few highlights:

Viral orange chicken sandwich 

Long Beach-based Terrible Burger becomes Smorgasburg's new permanent burger vendor after standout appearances at LAist's Tournament of Cheeseburgers and the market's rotating Smorgasburger Stand. The smashburger pop-up, run by husband-and-wife team Nicole and Ryan Ramirez, specializes in burgers that draw from pop culture and global influences. They've made waves with a Korean barbecue burger topped with bulgogi barbecue sauce and a viral orange chicken sandwich, previously available only at their Tuesday night residency at Long Beach's Midnight Oil, making its L.A. debut Sunday.

Terrible Burger's viral orange chicken sandwich makes its LA debut at Smorgasburg after being available only in Long Beach.

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Courtesy Terrible Burger

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"We have been big Smorgasburg fans for a really long time before we even started Terrible Burger. We would go to Smorgasburg on dates, just eat and hang out. And it was just always a little dream of, "oh, what if we ever sold food here?" Nicole Ramirez said.

Crispy fried snapper and thick-cut fries 

Orange County-based Hot Grease, run by Asha Starks, is among four vendors graduating from residencies to permanent status. The Southern fried fish pop-up celebrates Black American history through food that honors Starks' family heritage.

"Folks often forget that there are Black folks in Orange County. My family came to Orange County during the second wave of the Great Migration, and they settled in Santa Ana... my food is very cultural. And the story, I feel like, is just as important to highlight," Starks said.

Hot Grease's crispy buttermilk fried snapper with thick-cut fries and "Ill Dill" tartar sauce.

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Courtesy Hot Grease

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Hot Grease serves crispy buttermilk fried snapper with thick-cut fries and small-batch sauces like "Ill Dill" tartar. Honoring the fish fry's history as a site of mutual aid, Starks directs 3% of sales to the Potlikker Line, Hot Grease's reproductive justice mutual aid fund. For January, she's added fish and grits, black-eyed peas and collard greens.

Pizza with a Persian twist

Mamani Pizza brings studio-born energy to Smorgasburg LA with pies featuring Persian-inspired creativity.

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Courtesy Mamani Pizza

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Mamani Pizza, from the Grammy-nominated producer Farsi, part of the music production team Wallis Lane, started making Neapolitan-style pizzas at his West L.A. recording studio a year ago. What began as late-night pies for friends and artists became an underground hit. Most pizzas are traditional, but Farsi adds Persian touches like The Mamani, topped with ground wagyu koobideh, roasted Anaheim chilis, Persian herbs and pomegranate molasses.

Other new vendors

Banana Mama - Asian-inspired pudding
Barranco's Yogurt - Oaxacan fruit yogurt
Franzl's Franks - Austrian sausages
Melnificent Wingz - Gourmet chicken wings
Piruchi - Peruvian street food
RuRu's Golden Tea - Karak chai
Stick Talk - vegan corn dogs
SouuLA - Taiwanese breakfast concept
Unreal Poke - Hawaiian poke
Zindrew Dumpling Shop - Spicy wontons