Koreatown Tenants Protest Parking-to-Housing Conversion

Tenants in a Koreatown apartment building have staged a protest after the landlord proposed replacing parking garage spaces with accessory dwelling units.

Residents of the 22-unit building at 501 South Kingsley Drive are standing up to the landlord’s plan to remove several spaces used by tenants and convert them into five ADUs, the Los Angeles Times reported. Though tenants are opposed to the move, state and city government officials have given the green light to the redevelopment.

The replacement of car spaces with ADUs in infamously parking-strapped Koreatown is made possible by Senate Bill 1211, which passed last year. Under that law, local agencies are not required to replace parking spaces for tenants if the spaces are demolished by owners and property managers to make way for ADUs in an effort to increase housing density.

To show their opposition to the removal, tenants of the apartment building, at 5th and Kingsley, set up a peaceful protest using a long white plastic table and outdoor chairs to occupy some parking spaces. The protest has been going for three weeks after they were informed that building management company North Oak Property Management was pursuing an ADU conversion plan.

“We found the permits online before they ever announced anything,” resident Megan Thomas Bradner told the outlet. “They actually never officially notified us of the construction. All it said was, ‘You have no parking as of this day.’”

The Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety approved its permit in April and offered tenants a monthly $200 credit for each parking spot lost as well as a “Tenant Habitability Plan,” a spokesperson for North Oak Property Management told the outlet. But the habitability plan the tenants received was blank, the outlet said.

The protestors at 501 South Kingsley have been able to delay the project so far. Construction was expected to start late last month and wrap up next June, but the sit-in protest has seemingly cauased the project to pause.

Another garage-to-ADU conversion project at 450 South Normandie Avenue received a stop-work order. That rendered the parking spaces useless for residents and the owner.

Mark Nassab, building owner for 450 South Normandie, said the project has been in full compliance with city and state law since the beginning.

“We’re trying to help the city of L.A. combat shortages of housing, and we’re following the law, and I wish tenants would do the same,” Nassab said. “It’s going to provide more housing.”

Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Hutt has fielded letters from tenants, as have the Los Angeles City Planning Department and other agencies. Hutt is opposed to the legislation that allows for parking-to-ADU conversions without resident feedback.

“Decisions are being made in Sacramento without local input,” Hutt said. “Local governments are better equipped and designed to work directly with the community.”

Parking-to-ADU conversions are legal, but if parking spaces were part of a tenant’s lease agreement, that could entitle the tenants to a rent reduction, a Los Angeles Housing Department spokesperson told the outlet.

That doesn’t appear to be the case at 501 South Kingsley.

“What blew my mind was that my lease is apparently just a sheet of paper. It doesn’t do anything,” resident Mel Raymond told the outlet. “I thought my lease was something that protected me.”

— Chris Malone Méndez