Housing Advocates Sue City Of LA Again For Denying Affordable Housing Near Single-Family Homes

Housing advocates have filed a second lawsuit against the city of L.A. over stalled plans for affordable housing in neighborhoods near single-family homes.

In a complaint filed Tuesday, the pro-housing nonprofit YIMBY Law argues that city officials wrongly denied faster approvals to a developer aiming to build 190 apartments in Reseda for renters with low and moderate incomes.

YIMBY Law executive director Sonja Trauss said the developer’s application to the city followed all the laws in place at the time. She argues the city retroactively changed the rules to allow suburban neighborhoods like Reseda to continue refusing new housing.

“It's an important part of integrating L.A. economically and racially — to make sure that we can have affordable projects in otherwise expensive neighborhoods,” Trauss said.

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The mayor’s office did not respond to our request for comment on the new lawsuit.

Last month YIMBY Law filed a similar lawsuit defending an affordable housing project in Winnetka, another part of the San Fernando Valley.

How a rule change jeopardized low-income housing

The developer behind the Reseda project, Evolve Realty and Development, submitted its plans through the city’s affordable housing fast-tracking program, known as ED1.

Mayor Karen Bass signed this directive during her first week in office, promising that developers with projects comprised entirely of affordable apartments would get city approvals within about two months.

But about six months into her first year in office, Bass revised ED1 and directed the city’s planning department to exclude affordable housing projects in single-family neighborhoods, which make up about three-quarters of the city’s residential land.

The changes to ED1 left nine projects — proposing to build a total of 1,443 income-restricted apartments — with an uncertain future.

In December, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told LAist that ED1 has already accelerated thousands of units of affordable housing since Bass took office.

“The mayor believes that any policy implemented should be evaluated to ensure there are no unintended consequences on communities, especially the very ones we are trying to help,” press secretary Clara Karger said at the time.

Local and state officials at odds 

Housing advocates say the developers behind these projects followed the rules in place at the time, and should be allowed to proceed. State housing officials have also sent the city letters telling them to greenlight the developments.

In an October letter to the city, California’s Housing Accountability Unit Chief Shannan West wrote, “An applicant that submitted a complete preliminary application may proceed under the ED1 regulations that were in effect at the time the preliminary application was complete.”

But some city officials say ED1 was never intended to greenlight large low-income housing projects near single-family homes, and they’re willing to fight these projects in court.

City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield represents the district including both projects at the center of these lawsuits. In an email to LAist this week, he said ED1 has greenlit thousands of new apartments elsewhere in the city.

“The goal of ED1, a process I completely support, has always been to build on new state legislation to streamline affordable housing where those sorts of projects are allowed to be built,” Blumenfield said. “The Planning Department, City Attorney, Mayor and I are in agreement. But again, it's up to the courts.”

Apartments near horses? 

The project at the center of the new lawsuit, proposed to be built at 7745 N. Wilbur Ave., is located about three-quarters of a mile outside Reseda Ranch. The San Fernando Valley neighborhood features many large single-family home lots zoned to allow owners to keep large animals.

Reseda resident Mario Herrera spoke against the project and another nearby ED1 proposal at a meeting of the city council’s planning and land use committee last year.

“I can’t believe this is even happening in our neighborhood — two apartment buildings going up in our Reseda Ranch,” Herrera said. “On the weekends we see horses in our neighborhood, and it’s beautiful. I like to have my family over and just enjoy a ranch-style hangout.”

Herrera said he lives near one of the proposed ED1 developments.

“If this goes up, it takes away all my privacy,” he said. “It’s going to bring so much chaos. My family and I, we’re not ready for it.”

More lawsuits are coming 

YIMBY Law leaders said they plan to file a third lawsuit later this month, defending a similar ED1 project on 10898 W. Olinda St. in Sun Valley.

These challenges do not aim to force the city into allowing future ED1 developments in single-family zones, Trauss said. They’re focused solely on projects that applied before the rule change.

“The mayor can change her executive order,” Trauss said. “But the Planning Department, supported by the mayor's office, tried to go back and retroactively apply these new, more strict rules to projects that had already been submitted. That is what is illegal.”

The city has also allowed neighborhood opponents of ED1 projects to challenge new housing plans through the California Environmental Quality Act. Bass originally said these projects would be exempt from lengthy and expensive environmental reviews under that state law.