LA City Councilman calls for a ‘time out’
VENICE — If the owners of the Lincoln Place apartments move forward with a mass eviction Sept. 1, they will have a difficult time obtaining the permits needed to demolish the World War II-era buildings and replace them with condominiums.
That’s according to Los Angeles Assistant City Attorney Susan Pfann, who said city officials would be reluctant to approve the redevelopment project if Denver-based Apartment Investment Management Co. (AIMCO) does not abide by an agreement to relocate scores of tenants.
“We’ve already warned the landlord that if they want to come to us for subdivision approval and they try to say they’ve met all of the conditions of the agreement, we think it is unlikely we’ll be able to find that they have done that,” Pfann said. “If they want to continue they’ll have great difficulty and I’m sure that they are aware of that.”
AIMCO originally had agreed to pay relocation fees for the tenants while the development was under construction. But not all tenants have received relocation money and many remain on the property. That’s partly because tenants who are on fixed incomes believe the reimbursements won’t be enough for them to enter into the current rental market. It’s unknown whether AIMCO has attempted to address those concerns.
Representatives from AIMCO did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Pfann’s comments came a day after members of the Lincoln Place Tenants Association lost another attempt to stop the eviction, which would affect 40 households, all containing seniors and the disabled, said John Murdock, a Santa Monica-based attorney representing the association.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David P. Yaffe, Wednesday, refused to grant an injunction preventing the eviction because he said his courtroom was not the proper venue for such a hearing. He instead recommended tenants argue their cases in an unlawful detainer court.
Murdock plans to appeal Yaffe’s decision, as well as, file for an unlawful detainer. Tenants have tried to block a previous eviction, but were unsuccessful. “(An unlawful detainer) is not an adequate remedy,” said Murdock, who feels his clients are too old or not physically able to simultaneously go through an eviction and drawn-out legal battle. “The city should be enforcing their own mitigation measures.”
The mitigation agreement was reached in 2002 when city officials granted conditional approval to AIMCO to subdivide the 38-acre property to start construction on a multimillion dollar condominium project.
A preliminary report found that the project would significantly impact the area around Lincoln Boulevard and California Avenue as hundreds of affordable units would be lost. The report recommended measures be taken to assist tenants.
AIMCO opted out of the agreement, invoking the Ellis Act, a state law allowing landlords to get out of the rental business by evicting tenants and replacing apartments with condos for purchase as long as the owner occupies a unit on the property. Many tenants left the apartments voluntarily, while others were paid various sums to relocate elsewhere.
Pfann said the lack of relocation fees has not been addressed because AIMCO has not filed for a demolition permit.
The issue of condo construction has been a hot topic recently, with a Los Angeles City Council panel approving earlier this week a list of recommendations designed to protect tenants who are evicted for the sake of condo conversions.
The recommendations, which include providing tenants $1,000 for moving expenses and increasing fees for developers converting buildings larger than 11 units, came following a request by Councilman Bill Rosendahl — whose district includes Lincoln Place — to place a one-year moratorium on condo construction.
Rosendahl said the “time out” is needed during a period when his district has seen a rapid loss of rental housing, both affordable and market rate.
“We are at the point of crisis,” Rosendahl said. “Longtime residents are being forced from their homes in epidemic numbers. They can no longer continue to live in their neighborhoods. Our communities are being ripped apart.”
From Jan. 1, 2001 to July 27, 2006, 1,051 rental units were converted to condominiums in District 11, representing more than 25 percent of the number of units converted citywide, according to figures released by Rosendahl. The district includes Mar Vista, Westchester, West LA and Venice.
Additionally, 3,058 rent controlled units have been lost, representing more than 30 percent of the rent controlled units lost throughout Los Angeles.
Jan Book, a former resident of Lincoln Place who was evicted in December 2005, said the real issue is the Ellis Act, which she said allows developers to skirt around conditions of the California Environmental Quality Act and other protections cities enact locally.
Book is hoping Lincoln Place can serve as ammunition in the fight to reform Ellis so that protections granted to tenants, as in the case of Lincoln Place, will be enforced instead of being superseded by Ellis.
“This is really a case of private rights versus public,” she said. “Lincoln Place can now become the poster child for how the Ellis Act is abusing the protections provided under CEQA, how the Ellis Act is being abused by large landlords,and why the Ellis Act should be declared unconstitutional in order to restore the power back to the cities of California.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 18, 2006. Read the original PDF.