Updated: June 6 at 2:15pm:
eight months later Wave of builder remedial applications And kicking off a string of still-in-progress projects, developer Leo Pustilnikov is gearing up to take advantage of Beverly Hills’ legal terms for another wave of filings, Pustilnikov told Santa Monica. The real deal.
Pustilnikov has submitted applications for about six projects, he said, and plans to submit about six more in the coming weeks.
“We’ll end up with 850 to 1,200 units, depending on where things land,” he said.
“It’s only going to be 10 or 15 percent of the total multifamily stock in Forever Hills,” he added sarcastically.
The developer’s math is pretty accurate. A 2021 Report 8,475 multifamily units were counted in buildings with at least five units. The city’s total housing inventory is just under 16,500 units.
The largest, and possibly most controversial, of Pustilnikov’s builder’s remedial projects in the affluent city is at 125-129 South Linden Avenue, just off Wilshire Boulevard just west of the city’s main business and shopping district. Pustilnikov’s entity bought the property, which is partially used as a surface parking lot, in 2019 for $16 million, according to records. In October, the developer filed an initial application for builders’ remedy A 16-story multifamily project with 200 units.
He then filed a full builder’s remedial application in April, proposing a 19-story mixed-use project that would have 165 units, under the six-month deadline imposed by state law. And a 73-key hotel.
Last month, the city ruled that the application was incomplete and determined that the developer’s amended complete application, including the hotel plan, constituted a “substantially different” project.
A representative confirmed that the city had received six preliminary applications for builder remediation, which did not include the Linden project. These applications have a total of 493 units.
According to state authorities, Beverly Hills is vulnerable to penalties, allowing developers to bypass local zoning considerations as long as their projects meet affordability requirements for the city’s failure to meet its housing planning obligations. For the most recent housing planning update from 2021 to 2029, the state determined that Beverly Hills, with a population of approximately 32,000, must plan for an additional 3,104 units.
Like much of Southern California, the city faces an October 2022 deadline to achieve state approval for its new housing plan, but Beverly Hills — and many other cities — remain out of compliance. The city submitted the latest version of the new plan to the state’s housing and community development agency in March, but last month the agency determined the plan was still inadequate, in part because the city didn’t prepare enough for the new hybrid plan. Incentives – Use of Footprints – The main strategy of Beverly Hills is to provide enough new residential units.
Like some other cities in the state, Beverly Hills has embarked on a highly technical compliance battle to avoid remedial measures by builders.In communications between the state agency and the city regarding the requested changes to the city’s draft, agency representatives used the term “full compliance,” allegedly A recent letter from HCD.
But the legal term used in the relevant state law is “substantial compliance,” and officials in Beverly Hills argued that the city met that threshold despite the state’s guidance on required revisions. In its most recent letter, HCD reiterated the agency’s position that Beverly Hills is not substantially in compliance.
“In this context, ‘full’ means addressing HCD’s findings from previous reviews and should be considered synonymous with ‘substantial,'” the letter states.
Pustilnikov already owns six properties in Beverly Hills and has contracts to buy more, he said.
New wave of building remediation applications from developers arrives He was caught in a complex, years-long battle On the AES Power Plant site near the Redondo Beach waterfront, he has submitted plans, also using builder’s remedies, for a rustic complex that will include 2,700 residential units, a hotel and office space.
Last month, after the city of Santa Monica adopted new, more development-friendly zoning rules, City Council approves a solution An agreement was reached with WS Communities under which the development company agreed to put on hold the majority of its builder’s remediation application in exchange for faster approvals and additional incentives for projects that comply with the city’s new code. Pustilnikov also filed a builder’s remedy application in Santa Monica.
Clarification: Previous reporting did not include the number of units in the six initial applications Beverly Hills received.
