LA City Council may save affordable apartments from mayor’s ED1

Los Angeles could soon protect rent-controlled apartments in a part of the city that could be bulldozed for streamlined affordable housing projects, displacing tenants who can’t afford to move.

City Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez has filed a motion to impose a discretionary review of projects containing rent-controlled units within her First District, which stretches from Eagle Rock to Chinatown, City News Service reported.

The motion comes in response to a proposal by an affiliate of Lou Jacobs, an executive with California Landmark Group, to bulldoze a 17-unit apartment complex at 4719 North Toland Way in Eagle Rock, as reported by Urbanize Los Angeles.

The demolished apartments would make way for 153 affordable apartments in a development fast-tracked by Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Directive 1, which expedites affordable housing projects and allows developers to avoid discretionary review.

The proposed building would be income-restricted, with units priced below market rate.

But critics said the redevelopment would lead to the loss of 17 rent-controlled apartments and displace 45 tenants, including families, seniors, disabled and sick residents who have lived there for years.

“Most were unaware of the redevelopment plans until it was published by niche media outlets (Urbanize LA) focused on development, leaving them with limited time and options to understand their rights and prepare for relocation,” Hernandez’s motion reads.

“This in part was attributed to the swift approval process without discretionary review and the absence of public hearings and related notices.”

The council voted 12-0 to instruct the Planning Department to immediately prepare an Interim Control Ordinance. Once drafted, it will go before the Planning and Land Use Management Committee before a final vote by the City Council.

The temporary regulation would include a discretionary review process for the “demolition, building, use of land, grading and any other applicable permits” of properties with five or more rent-controlled units, or units that have been vacated as a result of the Ellis Act within five years.

Hernandez told the council before the vote that she wished they had more tools to support tenants living in rent-controlled units. While the city has a policy in place to ensure relocation assistance, she said it was not enough.

Los Angeles gives tenants “first access” to new units if they previously lived in a building that was redeveloped, but Hernandez said tenants often don’t rent the redeveloped units because they can’t afford them.

She said her motion is “not anti-development” — in fact, she said she wants to see a lot more development, according to City News.

“We want to streamline affordable housing, all of it, but the missing middle cannot come at the expense of our most affordable units,” Hernandez said. “This is about ensuring that we protect our RSO (rent stabilization ordinance) housing stock.”

The Los Angeles Housing Department reports more than 650,000 rent-controlled units citywide, including 51,631 in the First District.

Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who represents the northeast San Fernando Valley, backed Hernandez’s motion.

She called it “disheartening” to see such an immense shift in areas like Highland Park and Eagle Rock, when redevelopment displaces long-time residents who are often low-income minorities.

“We shouldn’t be doing an exchange and displacing people. This is not the way it’s supposed to work,” Rodriguez said. “We have to be smarter policy makers, and not just fall to whatever whim that people have in directives that are trying to accelerate the construction of housing — not at the expense of the very affordable housing that is keeping people housed.”

— Dana Bartholomew