September-October 2005

This is P.O.W.E.R.

Community group presses developer, wins affordable housing units in Calif.

By Cristiana Baik

Organizer Chris Gabriel and POWER won fight with major housing developer.

A community group, operating on a patched-together budget of grants and contributions, has evolved into a powerful player in the world of planning and development politics. People Organized for Westside Renewal (POWER) recently forced developer Trammell Crowe to fulfill a state law which promotes affordable housing within the state’s coastal zone.

Trammell Crow is the country’s largest private developer with political ties running as high as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Trammell Crow’s founder once purchased a rare Bible for the Justice. Crowe also flew Thomas to the Bohemian Grove retreat. POWER’s constituency is low-income people living in such areas as Palms, Mar Vista and Venice.

Trammell Crow’s development in sleepy Oxford Triangle provided the juncture for the two organizations. Trammell Crow initially proposed 297 luxury apartments for a site sandwiched between the Triangle’s single-family home area and Marina’s high-density luxury towers. California state government’s Mello Act requires that at least 10 percent of such a development be priced as affordable housing.

The Mello Act, originally passed in 1982, was set in place to stop the expansive development of Manhattan Beach and to change the face of gentrification by creating mixed-income residential buildings, as opposed to public housing or solely, affordable housing complexes. But from its inception, the Mello Act has been difficult to enforce.
“Unfortunately, the Act is not a top priority for the city council. Theoretically, Mello is supposed to be imposed for every development west of Lincoln Boulevard.

Developers hire consultants to write infeasibility reports as a loophole,” explained Anne Murphy, a resident who wrote her masters thesis on the Mello Act and inclusionary zoning in Los Angeles.

Trammell Crow’s initial treatment of the law was no exception. Rather than provide the 30 affordable housing units the Mello act required for their Oxford Triangle project, the developer initially offered a $250,000 settlement to a national non-profit organization that purchases housing for the poor. At that point, POWER entered the picture. A project that did not include full, on-site affordable housing and Mello Act compliance was not acceptable to the group. In addition to Trammell Crow, POWER found itself opposing a city councilwoman at the time—Cindy Miscikowski.

The Mello Act includes a provision by which developers may submit studies as to the feasibility or non-feasibility of affordable housing for a project in terms of the project’s overall financial context. Trammell Crow submitted a study stating that only 18 units were financially feasible for the 297 unit project. Miscikowski agreed with them. Los Angeles City Council representatives have traditionally enjoyed an unwritten accord with their colleagues—their judgments on developments in their own districts are followed. But when POWER produced documentation disputing the developer’s feasibility findings the city council’s planning committee rejected Miscikowski’s recommendations for the site and ruled that 24 units were possible.

“The success of the campaign was its two-headed approach: our legal strategy and our organizing team, where over 100 community leaders from the communities that would be effected by Trammel Crow’s development,” said Chris Gabriel, an organizer who works for POWER. The project was finalized. Then Trammell Crow altered the development: from 297 luxury apartments to 295 condos, reflecting the current profitability in the condo market.

Once again Trammell Crow produced a study concluding that full Mello Act compliance was unfeasible, identifying 24 units instead. POWER consultants concluded 30 units were feasible. POWER notified Trammell Crowe that it would pursue the case both through the city appeals’ process and the courts.

“It was the very last day we could file an appeal with the City (of Los Angeles). Ben (Beach, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles) was waiting for our call on the negotiations with Trammell Crow, and was ready to return the necessary documents to start the appeal process,” said POWER’s Gabriel. Trammell Crow returned with a decision. The Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) concluded that 27 units were feasible. Trammell Crow would build these. The two-year land lease between Trammell Crow and the owner of the land was expiring. Had the lease eventually expired before an agreement was reached, Trammell Crow may have added another layer of legal complexity to their future development.