Target Husk Still In Limbo As City Tries To Change Laws To Get It Finished

While everyone's favorite Target Husk—the one lording over Sunset and Western in East Hollywood—stands accruing graffiti tags and rust (do Targets rust?), city planners have been hard at work trying to figure out how to see the development completed.

This includes, among other things, fundamentally rewriting the city planning documents that govern development on that particular block. Last November, the Planning and Land Use Management Committee announced a recommendation that the City Council amend the Station Area Neighborhood Plan to include higher height-limits. LAist was present at a public comment meeting where East Hollywood Residents weighed in on the Target. While a majority supported the construction, several residents also argued it was irresponsible development.

While the City Council was going to vote on it then, the decision was postponed pending another conflict over a required child-care center, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The city's Planning Commission voted last November to require that Target provide a nearly 4,000-square-foot child care-center within a mile of the development. Supporting child care is required under city planning law businesses over a certain size. Target Corporation said this was absolutely impractical, but did say that they would be willing to contribute roughly $400,000 to support child-care in the area.

In 2014, a court ruling ordered the development's construction halted. A lawsuit filed by the La Mirada Homeowner's Association—argued by notable land-use attorney Robert P. Silverstein—pointed out the City Council violated height limits in the neighborhood. Where the Husk stands 74-feet-tall, it stands on a block with a 35-foot height limit as established by the neighborhood's planning documents.

But aside from the height limits, the proposed Target also failed to meet certain requirements for parking—it didn't have enough—nor did it adequately support local centers for child-care.

Obviously this is still a mess. And it doesn't get better when you consider that the litigious-happy La Mirada Homeowners Association is still around, waiting for the city to make significant action before probably suing again.

If the city does officially modify the Station Area Neighborhood Plan, you can practically hear Silverstein's opening statement, on behalf of the La Mirada Homeowners Association, as he argues the city failed to conduct proper environmental review before modifying the plan.

As Doug Haines, a member of the Association said to the Times, "Instead of reconfiguring the building to conform with the law, they're trying to reconfigure the law to conform to the buildings."