Now that some of the staunchest opponents of Venice Dell's much-needed homeless and low-income housing development in Venice have lost their lawsuit to block the project, will this be the last hurdle they will face in a race for long and unnecessary obstacles? set by Los Angeles city officials?
Should be.
For more than a year, the project slowed as city agencies stopped working with the developers, Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing Corp., as they tried to finalize contracts and parking designs, get permission to begin relocating and compensate tenants in a four-unit building on the project site and obtain necessary development approvals from the California Coastal Commission.
The 140-unit building, with four staff units and the other 136 split evenly between homeless apartments and low-income apartments, will be located on a city-owned parking lot near the waterfront. This is one of those rare open strips of land that city officials dream of using for affordable and homeless housing. The project was approved twice by City Council, first in 2021 and then in 2022, and the two nonprofits have an official development agreement.
But last year, Becky Dennison, executive director of Venice Community Housing, said city officials at the Bureau of Engineering and the Department of Transportation told her that the city attorney's office had ordered them to stop working with her. . And they did, delaying critical work needed to move the project forward.
The city attorney's office. Hydee Feldstein Soto, who officially opposed this project before being elected and taking office in late 2022, began looking for excuses to derail it, all of which have been refuted by the developers' lawyers.
Now that the lawsuit against the city and the developers has been rejected, it is time for the city to stop stalling. Superior Court Judge Richard L. Fruin, Jr. ruled against claims brought by the Coalition for Safe Coastal Development, the most substantial being that the development should not have been granted an exemption from reporting requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. The judge found that the project properly used a state law that allows exemptions for supportive housing projects in the city of Los Angeles that receive certain state or local funds.
Another lawsuit claiming the city improperly transferred the land is expected to come to court soon. But it seems unlikely to go very far, since technically the land has not yet been transferred to the developers and that process will not begin until closer to construction.
City officials have finally run out of excuses to stop working with developers to move the project forward.
This project has already been in development for years. It's frustrating enough that building affordable housing often requires years of cobbling together financing and approvals. It is infuriating that any Los Angeles city official would increase that schedule by postponing the work he needs to do in order to build it.
Mayor Karen Bass has said she is determined to keep homeless people in and supports the development of more affordable housing. However, he has wavered in his commitment to this project, saying last fall that he favored some form of affordable housing there, but deferred to Traci Park, the council member whose district includes Venice and who has long has opposed the current project.
She must do better than that. There is very little affordable housing in Venice and this project is desperately needed. If Bass really wants affordable and homeless housing built in the city (and he's given every indication that's his goal), he'll have to fight community groups and some City Council members who simply don't want it. in certain places and will make endless excuses.
It's time for Bass and other city officials to stop delaying this project. They should put it on the fast track.
