Los Angeles City Council Forced to Annul Housing Rejections

The Los Angeles City Council is vacating its rejections of three housing development applications in the San Fernando Valley.

Judicial orders compelled the city council to throw out its rejections and allow housing at three sites in Reseda, Sun Valley and Sylmar to move forward, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The council had originally denied the applications based on land use designations under Executive Directive 1, which expedites the processing of 100 percent affordable housing projects in the city.

Evolve Realty & Development is seeking to build at 7745 North Wilbur Avenue in Reseda, with designs completed by JZA Architecture. It would be a six-story building consisting of 151 low- and moderate-income apartments.

JZA principal Jeff Zbikowski, doing business under the entity Mamba 24, applied to build a three-story, 77-unit building for below-market-rate apartments at 10898-10900 Olinda Street in Sun Valley.

The initial iteration of ED1 issued in December 2022 didn’t distinguish if multifamily developments could be built on single-family zoned sites such as those.

Evolve submitted plans for the Wilbur Avenue project under that version of the law but hadn’t secured an administrative compliance letter before a revised order prohibited multifamily developments on single-family sites. The city planning department issued a letter of ineligibility as a result of the new ED1, prompting the company to appeal the decision to the city council.

The council denied the project in 2024. YIMBY Law subsequently filed a lawsuit against the city claiming the project had vesting rights under the Housing Crisis Act, or Senate Bill 330. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge then told the city council it must annul its denial.

The Olinda Street development similarly applied under the original ED1 but was denied under the rules of the second version. YIMBY Law filed another lawsuit, resulting in another judge ordering the city to annul its denial.

Evolve’s Wilbur Avenue site received an administrative compliance letter earlier this month. The Olinda Street development got its compliance letter last month.

A third project at 13916 Polk Street in Sylmar now has the green light as well thanks to the Superior Court stepping in. Developer Akhilesh Jha, who has clashed with the city several times in the past over housing construction in Woodland Hills and Harvard Heights, applied to build a 40-unit apartment on the site using state laws that would allow multifamily housing on single-family-zoned sites. A judge ruled that the city violated the vesting rights provisions of SB 330.

— Chris Malone Méndez