Lincoln Place Tenants Lose Council Decision

But vow to fight on

James Allardice
Mirror staff writer

   Tenants at Lincoln Place lost another round last month in their effort to save their apartment complex from being demolished and replaced with high-priced condominiums.
   At the November 20 Los Angeles City Council meeting, the Council approved a plan to demolish all of the 52 remaining buildings.
   If the owners, developer Robert Bisno and AIMCO, get their way, Lincoln Place will be replaced with 706 townhouses and 144 apartment units.
   The Council’s action was the latest loss for the Lincoln Place tenants who have been fighting to save their low and moderate income apartments for 15 years.
   “Since the City will no longer defend Lincoln Place from the landlord, the defense falls to the tenants,” Lincoln Place Tenants Association (LPTA) President Sheila Bernard said, adding that the Council took action “reluctantly.” She also said the Council’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee tried unsuccessfully to delay the Council decision.
   “It seems to us that the elected officials would like to preserve our housing, but they don’t feel the City can prevail in court,” Bernard said. “They fear that not only would the City face further litigation, but they would face litigation personally, if they continue to defend our neighborhood against the landlord.”
   The City has been using an EIR that was begun in 1991 and completed in 1994 and the PLUM Committee wanted more time to see if the EIR was still adequate. However, the City Attorney would not allow another delay, thus forcing the City Council to use the eight-year-old EIR in their decision.
   “The Offices of the City Attorney and the Planning Commission were adamant that a decision to approve the project had to be made immediately,” Bernard said. “The combination of this advice and the duress of eight years of litigation led the PLUM [Committee] to recommend to the Council that the subdivision be approved.”
   Recently, LPTA had successfully lobbied the City Council to pass a temporary measure stopping any evictions for rehabilitations on existing apartment buildings.
   Last year, three of Lincoln Place’s garden apartment buildings were demolished and rebuilt as luxury condominiums under the name Village at Venezia, but only one of the three finished buildings has been rented.
   Today, 450 of Lincoln Place’s 795 original units are still occupied – by an estimated 800-1,000 tenants. It’s located on 33 acres just east of Lincoln Boulevard, between Lake Street and Palms Boulevard, in Venice.
   In September, Peter Kompaniez, vice-chairman and president of AIMCO told LPTA representatives that Bisno was interested in selling the property.
   Bernard hopes that Bisno will consider a non-profit sale to the tenants of Lincoln Place. “If the owner were inclined to negotiate with tenants, we could come up with a win-win situation,” she said. “But the owner has not been willing to do so in the past.”
   However, LPTA is not banking on acquiring the property anytime soon and is continuing to fight, lobbying City and business officials and considering legal action.
   “It is possible that the landlord does not want to carry out the project after all, since one of the conditions of the project is that he build the 144 rental replacement units first before he gets to build any of the expensive condos,” Bernard said. “But the tenants cannot take that chance. We are exploring legal options.”
   The developer would be required to give first priority on the 144 units to low and very-low income senior and disabled tenants and families with children at Lincoln Place. Second priority would go to other low and very-low income tenants currently living at Lincoln Place. Third priority would go to other current Lincoln Place tenants. Last in the pecking order would be low and very-low income tenants from the wider community.
   The group’s next move will be to nominate Lincoln Place for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. A hearing will be held by the California State Office of Historic Preservation in February.
   Built after World War II to house ex-GIs and their families, Lincoln Place is one of the oldest, largest and most architecturally distinctive affordable housing projects in this area. Further, the two-story buildings and their gardens have been remarkably well-maintained.
   “Tenants are determined that this fight will be taken to the wall,” Bernard said. “We continue to hope that at some point, through persuasion by other business people, through public discourse, through creative solutions brokered by a third party, or some combination … Lincoln Place can still be saved.”
   Repeated efforts by the Mirror to reach Bisno were unsuccessful.