Court Favors Tiao Properties on Boyle Heights Resi Project

Tiao Properties has won a lawsuit seeking to force the East Los Angeles Planning Commission to reverse a successful appeal to block a 50-unit apartment complex in Boyle Heights.

A court backed the Silverlake-based developer, which fought to overcome the appeal against the six-story building at 2115-2123 Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

The court judgment forces the commission to reject the appeal and reapprove the project during a hearing slated for April 9.

In 2021, the company led by Will and Diana Tiao filed plans to build the 56,000-square-foot apartment building with 4,000 square feet of ground-floor shops and an underground parking garage, The Real Deal reported.

Tiao aimed to implement incentives for Transit Oriented Communities — places that are designed to make it more convenient to take transit than to drive — to construct a larger building than zoning rules allow in exchange for five affordable apartments set aside for extremely low-income households.

The project, approved by the planning commission in 2023, would replace a 115-year-old apartment building with sidewalk storefronts. An affiliate of Will Tiao bought the three-unit, rent-controlled building in early 2020 for $2.1 million.

The brown and gray building, designed by West Adams-based Bittoni Architects, would contain vertical windows, with inset balconies on its upper four floors, with floor-to-ceiling windows below, according to a rendering.

A year ago this month, however, the planning commission voted 3-2 to grant an appeal blocking the new apartment building at Cesar E. Chavez and North Chicago Street, near bus stops and the Soto/Cesar E. Chavez Metro station.

The appeal, filed by tenants of the building slated to be bulldozed, argued the project was inconsistent with zoning rules and the California Environmental Quality Act. It said the project had been approved without sufficient community input, and without enough affordable housing.

Planning staff had recommended the commission deny the appeal, pointing to state law allowing little discretion on such multifamily development.

But a majority of commissioners ultimately voted to grant the appeal, thus overturning the project’s prior approval.

The reason: an uptick in evictions after the end of pandemic renter protections, plus an alleged lack of consideration to gentrification, displacement and mental health impacts, LA Public Press reported. The Tiaos then sued to overturn the decision.

The decision to reverse the planning commission appeal is the second such ruling by the courts, according to Urbanize.

In late 2020, a Los Angeles judge ordered the South Los Angeles Area Planning Commission to rescind its decision to block construction of the District Square project, which called for building more than 500 apartments near Metro’s Expo/Crenshaw Station.

Tiao Properties, founded in 2012, manages $125 million in assets, including 200 apartment units, according to its website.

— Dana Bartholomew