LA Conservancy v. Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Pershing Square

The redevelopment plan adopted by the CRA for downtown Los Angeles authorized the agency, with the concurrence of the Planning Commission, to allow density transfers from one building site to another under certain narrow circumstances. This would be done principally as a means of generating tax increment funds from new development on the higher density (transferee) parcel that would be used to preserve and restore historic structures sited on the lower density (transferor) parcel. The CRA, however, began using its powers simply to “sell density” to the highest bidder, allowing numerous downtown high rise office buildings to be built at twice the normal size and density permitted by the City’s zoning. Instead of preserving historic buildings, this misuse of power soon resulted in projects where LA’s historic past was being demolished to make way for behemoth new construction projects.

One such project approved by the redevelopment agency proposed to sell the “air rights” to downtown’s Pershing Square park to a developer who would then transfer his newly acquired density across the street, where he would demolish a historic structure facing the park and replace it with a huge proposed hotel/office complex. On behalf of the Los Angeles Conservancy, CLIPI went to court in the late 1980s to fight the Pershing Square project and to prevent future such abuses. Shortly after the suit was instituted, the CRA conceded that it should not abuse its powers and agreed to stop selling density in this way. Although the Conservancy agreed to allow the challenged project to proceed, the economics of the project never worked. Some years later, a much shorter mixed use structure was built on the subject parcel. 

(Published in the 30th Anniversary of CLIPI Dinner Program)