LA sued over plan to add density along Expo Line

Fix the City—the nonprofit that sued to overturn Hollywood’s community plan—has filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles seeking to void approval of new guidelines that allow for greater density along the Expo Line.

As first reported by the Los Angeles Times, the nonprofit filed a petition in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming the Exposition Corridor Transit Neighborhood Plan was approved without first improving infrastructure to support that growth.

It cites cracked sidewalks, potholed streets, and slow fire and emergency medical service response times as examples of ways in which “the city has simultaneously allowed deterioration over time while increasing demand.”

“The result is literally an unmitigated disaster,” Fix the City says in the suit.

Approved by in July, the Expo Line plan would allow taller, mixed-use buildings to be constructed along major streets near transit stations and would change zoning to allow housing and offices to be built in industrial areas within a half-mile of train stations in Palms, Westwood, and West LA.

Estimates show that between 4,400 and 6,000 new housing units and between 9,400 and 14,300 new jobs could be added across the entire plan area by 2035.

Fix the City, led by director Don Parker and president Michael Eveloff, has sued the city over an update to the Hollywood Community Plan in 2013 and over the city’s mobility plan in 2015.

Its Expo Line plan petition was filed by attorneys Frederic Woocher and Beverly Grossman Palmer, who also works with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

A spokesman for City Attorney Mike Feuer told the Times the city would review the lawsuit.

• Lawsuit seeks to overturn plan that would allow taller buildings along the Metro Expo Line [Los Angeles Times]
• LA will attempt to densify some Expo Line neighborhoods [Curbed LA]