As they said they would, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) – the nonprofit organization that launched a campaign to reform the land use and development process in Los Angeles – filed a lawsuit against the city for approving the Palladium Residences.

A billboard near the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue is part of AIDS Health Care Foundation’s and the Coalition to Preserve L.A.’s campaign to reform city planning policy.
(photo by Gregory Cornfield)

AHF is calling for the courts to reverse the city’s approval of the project to build two 30-story towers on parking lots around the music venue on Sunset Boulevard because they will be bigger, higher and denser than city code allows. The city council approved plans for the Palladium Residences project in March, and they will be constructed across the street from AHF’s headquarters in Hollywood.

The two towers will be approximately 350 feet tall with 731 market-rate residential units and 24,000 square feet of retail space. Five percent of the units will be set aside as “workforce housing,” designated for residents who earn 50-120 percent of the area’s median income.

When city council members approved the project, they also denied appeals from AHF on claims that are similar to the lawsuit. The foundation contends the project sets a bad precedent by allowing zoning and height changes and irresponsible General Plan amendments. AHF and opponents of the project claim the Palladium Residences and projects like it that encourage gentrification will worsen the city’s housing crisis and cause irreversible, unintended consequences to neighborhoods, such as endless congestion, failing infrastructure and loss of neighborhood character. City officials, members of the planning staff and supporters of the project say city centers like Hollywood are the best places to increase density to reduce further “sprawl.”

The lawsuit names the city, the city council, and developer Crescent Heights Palladium as defendants, and calls for the courts to invalidate the project’s “illegal and improper” approval, which the nonprofit said violates the California Environmental Quality Act, the city’s charter and municipal codes.

(photo by Gregory Cornfield)

“We believe and assert in our lawsuit that the pattern and practice of the mayor, city attorney, city planning department, city planning commission and city council operating in defiance of an expressed city charter limitation on authority to process and grant General Plan amendments is a willful failure to comply with public duties imposed by the city’s fundamental land use laws,” said AHF president Michael Weinstein. “Through this legal action, we seek to hold these public officials accountable and overturn the faulty – and we believe illegal – approval of the Palladium Project.”

Aaron Green, a spokesman for the Palladium Residences, said the lawsuit is completely baseless.

“It seems preposterous to me that an organization – founded on helping people with HIV/AIDS – is spending money to protect 12 percent of their views from their top-floor luxury offices,” he said.

Weinstein said development in Los Angeles severely affects his clients and staff, and that the organization’s clientele have increasing housing issues.

“Nonprofits should have as much or more to say about the planning and land use than greedy developers,” he said.

Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, 13th District, continues to support the Palladium project and redevelopment of the existing surface parking lot. O’Farrell’s communications director, Tony Arranaga said the project will bring thousands of good paying jobs, hundreds of badly needed housing units and preserve and restore the historic Hollywood music venue.

Rob Wilcox, spokesman for the city attorney’s office, said they are reviewing the lawsuit and declined to comment further.

AHF is also the leader in a larger citywide fight over appropriate city planning policies. The foundation initiated the Coalition to Preserve L.A., which will gather signatures for the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative aimed for the March 2017 ballot. The initiative would put a two-year moratorium on projects like the Palladium Residences and rein in “mega developments.”

City lawmakers agree at least that the planning process needs to be reformed. Earlier this month, the city council introduced plans to reform all the city’s community plans and the city’s General Plan, which has not been updated in more than 20 years.

Developers hope to begin construction on the Palladium Residences in early 2017. The Hollywood Palladium concert venue will remain open and operational while construction is completed around it.