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# Date set for Place case
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/date-set-for-place-case/
- Published: 2006-11-03T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T22:01:22.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Venice, #archive-import

*The saga over Lincoln Place continues in court*

SM COURTHOUSE — A trial date is expected to be set today in the case involving roughly 55 aging and disabled tenants of Lincoln Place Apartments, a post World War II affordable-housing complex slated for demolition to make way for market rate housing.

Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins earlier this week sided with the tenants by denying a request by the property owners — Denver-based Apartment Investment Management Co. (AIMCO) — to have the case dismissed.

The tenants are challenging an unlawful detainer filed by AIMCO on the grounds that the company violated an agreement with the City of Los Angeles to relocate tenants on the Venice property during construction.

Tenants are also challenging the way in which AIMCO demolished structures on the property — located a block east of Lincoln Boulevard and California Street in Venice — claming they are operating without respect for state law that protects affordable, rental housing.

AIMCO, which has refused to accept rent from tenants for the months of September and October, has plans to replace all buildings on the 33-acre property with contemporary housing, complete with affordable units for low-income residents, AIMCO officials said.

Most of the tenants have already left, accepting relocation packages that included thousands of dollars to help pay for moving expenses.

Those who did not accept AIMCO’s offer were evicted this past December, with some forming a “tent city” nearby to stage protests.

Under an agreement reached during a series of mediations, 40 households comprised of elderly tenants and those with disabilities were allowed to remain at the site until demolition commenced.

However, AIMCO ordered those tenants to vacate the property Aug. 31\. Many have left, however, 13 households still remain.

“To get these issues aired in public is a major victory for us,”said Sheila Bernard, the president of the Lincoln Place Tenants Association, which is fighting the evictions. “If a developer can be held to an agreement that protects tenants, then council members all over the state can make those agreements and can count on them to be followed. Otherwise, thousands of evictions will occur as property owners look to get out of rent control.”

AIMCO officials could not be reached for comment.

In the past, officials with AIMCO said they offered — both in October 2005 and in April of 2006 — to allow existing tenants to remain at Lincoln Place in their current rents for life.

Those offers were rejected by the tenants association, who said residents on fixed incomes would be unable to afford market rate housing elsewhere.

For the past two years, AIMCO officials said they have offered “generous monetary relocation packages” far in excess of what state and local law requires Lincoln Place, a garden-style campus of 52 buildings built in 1951, was originally backed by the Federal Housing Authority to support World War II veterans and their families. However, it always has been privately owned.

Once offering 795 affordable apartments, the site has been largely abandoned in the face of an ongoing legal debacle that began shortly after 1993, when the property owner proposed a redevelopment plan that called for 850 units to be built on the site, most of which would be market-rate condominiums.

The complex is bounded by Frederick Street, Lake Street, Penmar Avenue and an alley just north of Rialto in Venice, and encompassing 35 acres.

The Ellis Act, passed by the California legislature in 1986, was designed as a way for landlords to sell their property in order to get out of the rental business.

Legal advocates for the tenants contend AIMCO — a corporate landlord that owns 50 apartment complexes in California — is not going out of the rental business. Therefore, they argue, AIMCO is forfeit from exercising the Ellis Act.

“Lincoln Place has had long term tenants who have lived there for more than 30 years and are paying far below market rent,” said Amanda Seward, lead counsel for the tenants.“Our argument is that AIMCO has filed under Ellis to simply get rid of these tenants, not to leave the rental businesses. They are not operating under Ellis in good faith.”

> “Our argument is that AIMCO has filed under Ellis to simply get rid of these tenants, not to leave the rental businesses. They are not operating under Ellis in good faith.” — AMANDA SEWARD ATTORNEY, LINCOLN PLACE TENANTS ASSOCIATION

Tenants are currently appealing another case against the City of Los Angeles for allegedly failing to enforce conditions of a redevelopment approval which prohibits AIMCO from evicting tenants against their will.

That lawsuit is based on a landmark ruling by the state court of appeals last year, which said that mitigation conditions were “not mere expressions of hope,” and that developers are not allowed to “piecemeal” conditions of the California Environmental Quality Control Act.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/110306-01_01.jpg)

ABANDONED: The buildings were built in 1951 to support World War II veterans and their families. (Photo: Photo courtesy)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 3, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110306.pdf?ref=smdp.com)