A rendering of Crescent Heights’ proposed 26-story project on Burton Way near Robertson Drive
Beverly Hills has approved five projects under builder’s remedy so far this month, but the one most recently considered was denied. That project is scheduled to return for a final decision, but the denial makes clear that Beverly Hills isn’t done fighting builder’s remedy just yet.
The Beverly Hills Planning Commission voted 4-1 at a Tuesday night meeting to deny the 26-story Crescent Heights project at 8844 Burton Way.
Commissioner Terri Kaplan served as the lone vote in favor. Kaplan said she felt “boxed in,” like she had to approve the project because a denial would ultimately lead to expensive litigation.
Her fellow commissioners didn’t feel the same.
“I have very serious concerns,” Beverly Hills Planning Commissioner Gary Ross said at the meeting.
Those concerns include the fact that the project’s 22 affordable units had been relegated to the bottom five floors of the project and were concentrated around the trash chute and elevator.
“I really don’t feel good about this project,” Ross said.
Builder’s remedy is a provision of the Housing Accountability Act that has bedeviled several cities across California whose state-approved housing plans were briefly noncompliant.
That period of being out of compliance created a window that allows developers to file applications for projects taller and with more units than might otherwise be allowed, provided that 13% or more of the units qualify as affordable housing.
The five projects approved this month by the commission range from eight to 12 stories, according to Urbanize LA. The approvals were a stark contrast to the previous tack the city had taken in responding to these larger-than-usual projects.
The city of Beverly Hills used myriad tools to block developments proposed under builder’s remedy, which have largely received considerable community pushback and outrage.
A builder’s remedy project proposed for 346 N. Maple Drive in Beverly Hills
But in August, the city lost a court case over a 19-story tower, and land use attorneys working on these projects anticipated the ruling would shift the tide.
“I was thinking that up until Tuesday at around 4 o’clock or 5 o’clock in the afternoon, when the Planning Commission recommended denial of a builder’s remedy project on Burton Way,” said Dave Rand, a partner at Rand Paster Nelson who represents the Burton Way project.
In 2023, Santa Monica had to work out a settlement with a developer that proposed 14 of the 16 builder’s remedy projects it received applications for while its housing element wasn’t state-approved. La Cañada Flintridge abandoned its fight against an 80-unit builder’s remedy project in May.
Throughout the state, local agencies that have sought to push back against builder’s remedy haven’t come out on top. In June, state Attorney General Rob Bonta put out a release directing local governments to comply with state housing laws in a timely manner, specifically including their “responsibility to timely process Builder’s Remedy applications.”
There were about a dozen builder’s remedy projects submitted for developments that would normally never be built in Beverly Hills. In some cases, developers have proposed 20- and even 26-story projects in areas where four stories would be the usual height limit.
The state housing law makes it challenging to deny these projects, absent a shortlist of findings, including that the project is a quantifiable risk to public safety.
The project at 8844 Burton Way is slated to return to the Planning Commission on Oct. 29 so the decision to deny the project can be finalized. But it can also be reversed at that meeting, Rand said.
“This hearing next week is going to be pivotal, because if the commission doesn’t turn it around, then I think it could spell a return to … the city grasping at straws to try to deny a project they don’t like when that clearly violates state housing law,” he said.