On Friday, March 3, 2023, Carstens, Black & Minteer LLP filed a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles on behalf of Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), a UNIDAD coalition partner, for failing to comply with the law when they overrode regulatory decisions and allowed the Bethune site in South Central Los Angeles to be developed into a luxury hotel.

This over-33,000-square-foot vacant lot was formerly home to the Mary McLeod Bethune Library, which was demolished in 2010.

SAJE’s lawsuit challenges the failure of the City of Los Angeles and its City Council to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, Planning and Zoning law, and various Los Angeles Municipal Code provisions in approving a 168-room hotel building for the Bethune site.

“We believe the city abused its discretion in approving this hotel,” says Maria Patiño Gutierrez, Director of Policy and Research at SAJE. “Permits for this project were denied twice by regulatory agencies, but the city council nullified those decisions. As long as city officials are allowed to specially exempt land-use decisions in their districts from laws and regulatory processes, we are not going to solve our housing crisis.”

“The city council’s approval contravenes fundamental Community Plan and General Plan policies and programs that prioritize the development of much-needed affordable housing on public land,” says Sunjana Supekar, an attorney with Carstens, Black & Minteer.

SAJE hopes that this lawsuit will lead to this valuable, publicly owned land being used for affordable housing—as it was always intended to be—instead of being sold off to a private actor for private gain.

Sincerely,

The UNIDAD Coalition