Podcast - The Legal Landscape of Housing and Transit Growth in West Hollywood

Ryan Leaderman: Thank you for tuning in to our podcast today. My name is Ryan Leaderman, and I am a partner at Holland & Knight. My practice area is land use. So I work with a lot of real estate developers to get entitlements and environmental review done. I primarily work in Southern California and City of Los Angeles, City of West Hollywood, all throughout the Southland. Today we have Mayor John Heilman, who is the mayor of West Hollywood and a longtime city councilmember from the City of West Hollywood. And John is one of the founding fathers of the City of West Hollywood, going back to the early 1980s, and he is in office and he's seen so much tremendous growth and change in the City of West Hollywood. So John, why don't you take a few minutes to go ahead and introduce yourself. 

John Heilman: Well, thanks, Ryan. I am a longtime councilmember and currently the mayor of the City of West Hollywood. And as you said, I was part of the group that incorporated the city back in 1984. And I've served pretty much continuously, except for a couple years, on the City Council, and it's been such an exciting time in the city and to see all of the progress that's been made. And I know housing is a big concern of yours. We were able to draft a rent control ordinance in the early days of [the] city. We had one of the early inclusionary housing programs with density bonuses. We started a nonprofit affordable housing development corporation that has built, I think now, more than a thousand units, not just in West Hollywood, but throughout Southern California. In this time, we've also had the opportunity to build a library, a new rec center and pool, a new fire station, a senior services center and numerous other projects throughout the city. So it's been just such a wonderful experience.

Ryan Leaderman: And although I no longer am a resident of the City of West Hollywood, I am on the board of that affordable housing provider, the West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation. And we've gone through so much growth over the past several years. And the city has been so supportive with funding and a willingness to sometimes get into these really challenging land use battles where a lot of neighbors may not like the density or the people who might be coming in over there. So from your perspective, John, what makes the city unique?

John Heilman: I think we're unique. We're sort of known as the heart of the LGBT community. We have an annual Pride festival that's one of the largest in the world. We have a great Halloween celebration. We have the Rainbow District, which is, all of the LGBT nightlife on the West Side is concentrated there. But we also have the Sunset Strip and the iconic music venues there, The Roxy, The Whiskey, The Rainbow. We also have a great design business in the city. We have a lot of entertainment-related businesses. So we're very fortunate in the quality of businesses. But I think what makes West Hollywood really unique is the people who live here. And we have so many people who are so active, so concerned about not just the city, but work in nonprofits, work in trying to make the world a better place. So it's great when you have residents who are committed in that way.

Ryan Leaderman: My grandparents used to live on Curson in the City of West Hollywood, and I have fond memories of learning how to swim in their pool at their apartment building. They lived in [the] top unit at the front of the building. And at that time, back in the late '70s, it was mostly senior citizens and a lot of Russians. My grandfather emigrated from Poland when he was a young man. Tell me a little bit about the evolution of the residents and the change in the character of who actually lives in West Hollywood now.

John Heilman: Well, about 40 percent of our residents identify as LGBT+ members. And we have a significant senior population. West Hollywood is often thought of as a fairly wealthy community, and we are. But we also have about 20 percent of residents who are living below the poverty line. Many of them are seniors or immigrants. For a long time, we were sort of the heart of the Russian immigrant community or Russian-speaking immigrant community, and that's changed a little bit as people unfortunately have died off or the next generation, they have children and want to move out to a place where they have more room for the children to grow and play.

Ryan Leaderman: I know Santa Monica Boulevard used to have railroad tracks right down the center of the street, and you were instrumental in helping to remove that and beautify the street many, many years ago. And the city is so dense, with so many apartment buildings located near these great transportation corridors. Can you talk a little bit about how the housing laws have changed in relation to density?

John Heilman: Well, I think there is some issues, and I know that the state is well-intentioned in terms of trying to address the housing shortage in California. Sometimes I think they address it in a way that has unintended consequences. For a while, I think the state felt like it was going to solve the housing problem by ADUs, accessory dwelling units. And every year they keep updating the ordinance or the state law on ADUs, and every year we have to spend time addressing that, and it really takes away time from addressing the affordable housing problem that we have. What we really need is to have the tools to make sure that new development is suitable for our community. As you mentioned, we're already one of the densest cities in the country. And we're trying to encourage housing, but we want to be able to encourage it in places where it makes sense in the city rather than destroy intact neighborhoods or cause displacement of existing residents. So sometimes I think the state doesn't quite get the difficulties that local officials have in addressing housing.

One of the other things that has been enacted recently by the state is SB 79. As you know, it allows for much greater density along certain types of rail lines, and it is going to affect West Hollywood because we recently got approval for a Metro extension, the extension of the K line that will come through West Hollywood. But SB 79 has caused a little bit of pushback. People now opposing transit that they previously supported because they're concerned about how SB 79 is going to affect their neighborhood.

Ryan Leaderman: So, and if we could talk maybe for listeners, the K line would institute a number of new transit stops or train stations in the city, which would mean that people wouldn't have to take their car, and it would connect to the greater Metro system where you go downtown much more easily or to the valley or to the west side. So it can be really transformative. So, do I understand then, maybe there is a little bit of tension between having better transit and the push for greater density, and then how does that relate to existing neighborhoods where people are maybe afraid about gentrification or possibly their house is going to be subject to a tower coming up over there? How do you reconcile all of that?

John Heilman: Well, it is challenging, and I'm glad you brought up the extension of the K line because it is really exciting for West Hollywood. We've been lobbying for it for so long, and finally the Metro board, the county board, approved an extension that will serve West Hollywood. It will go through the heart of our Rainbow District, there'll be a stop there, there will be a stop at Cedars-Sinai, a stop at Santa Monica and Fairfax, a stop at La Brea, it'll go into Hollywood, there'll be a stop at the Hollywood Bowl as well. So, it really has the potential to be transformative, not just for West Hollywood, but for the entire region. It really is going to bring a lot of people together and connect people to work and venues that they're already traveling to. But it does present a challenge because SB 79 allows for greater density along rail lines, and some of the neighborhoods that are within the quarter- or half-mile distance are single-family neighborhoods or they're small neighborhoods with sort of unique qualities to them. And people don't want to see their quality of life damaged or destroyed. The one good thing is that SB 79 does allow the city to adopt its own transit-oriented development alternative plan. So rather than just simply letting the state law go into effect with no local parameters, we can develop our own transit-oriented development alternative plan, take the density that SB 79 permits and concentrate it at transit hubs, concentrate it along the boulevards and protect some of those single-family neighborhoods or neighborhoods that have unique historic qualities.

Ryan Leaderman: So do I understand, then, an alternative plan is in the works, or has the city already approved it yet?

John Heilman: No, the city has not approved it. I'm bringing forth an item for us to move in that direction as a number of our neighboring cities have already done. I think the idea of more density of long transit makes a lot of sense, but I think it also makes sense for the city to concentrate that development in places, number one, where it's likely to be built, and number two, where it isn't going to adversely impact the quality of life for existing residents. You know, people talk about sort of overriding single-family zoning as a result of SB 79, but there are a lot of transactions that have to occur. You have to have people who are willing to sell, and I think a lot of people in those neighborhoods are not willing to sell to developers who are going to come in and, as you said, utilize SB 79 to put in a seven-story building. I think there's going to be a lot of – and there already is – a lot of pushback, but there's also going to be a lot of efforts by, I think, single-family owners, not to allow that to happen in their neighborhood, either through pressuring the city or, you know, just not agreeing to sell and not agreeing to allow that to occur in their neighborhoods. 

Ryan Leaderman: SB 79 is new, it hasn't even gone into effect yet, but that is one of several new tools that the state has implemented over the years where one of my colleagues, Tamsen Plume, coined this term "creative groveling." So that as a developer's attorney, I would just almost get down on my hands and knees and "please don't deny this project, it's really great, really fantastic." And now with state density bonus law, the Housing Accountability Act, there are a lot more tools that really mandate from the state that housing needs to go ahead and be approved. Any thoughts on the change from when there were these groveling attorneys and developers to now when they kind of push back at you and say, hey, you can't deny my project, it conforms with applicable rules.

John Heilman: I would never describe you as a groveling attorney, Ryan. So I think there are aspects of state law that have been very helpful. For instance, the Housing Accountability Act that requires design standards to be objective and requires cities to basically approve projects if they meet the zoning, unless there's some overriding public safety concern. The density bonus law, it encourages and incentivizes affordable units. The problem with the state's density bonus law is that it actually produces fewer units than our existing inclusionary ordinance based on how they measure the size of units. So that is one of those unintended consequences, I think, of the state law. It's actually resulting in projects being built in West Hollywood that have fewer affordable [units] than what our city laws would have mandated. But I think there's certain aspects of state law that have proved to be helpful. I remember projects being denied or delayed because a councilmember or a planning commission didn't like the look of a project or didn't feel like it was quote "compatible with the neighborhood," and that's such a subjective standard that it's very difficult for somebody building housing to know what the end game is and what they need to do to satisfy the city's requirements.

Ryan Leaderman: Yes, I've had many conversations with the city architect about design and what some would say are subjective standards, but we're not going to go there today. What are you most optimistic about with respect to the future of West Hollywood?

John Heilman: Well, I'm really optimistic because we are fortunately very strong financially. I'm optimistic because, as I said, we're a very fortunate city with great businesses. Just this week I've had, I think, three or four new businesses opening. We're seeing a lot of interest around the Metro extension, and I think we're going to see that be a transformative event when it is eventually built. It's going to take a substantial amount of time, but it's something that is really a long-term investment in the community that is worth fighting for.

Ryan Leaderman: John, [I] really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to have a conversation with me and with our listeners. And it's so encouraging to hear this beacon of light coming from West Hollywood, this rainbow-colored beacon of light.

John Heilman: Well, thank you for having me.