A development firm led by Leo Pustilnikov has added two stories to a “builder’s remedy” apartment project in Beverly Hills.
Beachside Suites, based in Beverly Hills, has filed plans under the state housing loophole to upgrade the project to 12 stories with 65 apartments at 346 North Maple Drive, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. It would replace a two-story apartment complex.
The company and Oak Investment, an affiliate of Beverly Hills-based Dromy International Investment, had filed plans with other builder’s remedy applications early this year for a 10-story, 70-unit complex south of Santa Monica and Beverly boulevards.
Pustilnikov applied for at least half a dozen projects in Beverly Hills under the provision, with as many as 1,200 homes.
Among the largest was a 16-story, 200-unit apartment building at 125-129 South Linden Drive, just off Wilshire Boulevard west of the city’s main shopping district. The developer then upsized the plan to a 19-story, 165-unit building with a 73-room hotel.
Builder’s remedy, a once little-known provision in state housing law, allows developers who include at least 20 percent affordable housing to bypass local zoning rules in cities and counties that haven’t had their state-mandated housing plans approved.
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Pustilnikov was the first developer to trigger the untested loophole with a builder’s remedy application to build 2,700 homes and a 300-room hotel on the site of the AES power plant in Redondo Beach.
Lawsuits from both the developer and advocacy groups seek to force the city to permit construction.
In Santa Monica, developer WS Communities had proposed using the remedy to force the city to allow 14 projects with more than 4,000 homes. The city cut a deal with the developer last spring to fast-track projects in exchange for fewer units.
— Dana Bartholomew