Fires, Reckless Demolition, and Unbuilt Projects: Eight Infuriating Stories in One Post
(Pictured: 2656 Magnolia Avenue, a green 1905 bungalow with red brick, illegally demolished in 2022.)
Eight infuriating stories came to my attention this week.
EIGHT.
Hence this roundup post.
Abandoned Store Burns in Inglewood
Father Dylan Littlefield tipped me off to a two-alarm fire on Friday morning. According to neighbors, the building had housed a 98-cent store that closed at least a year ago.
NBCLA personnel at the site “…heard what sounded like a huge explosion at around 12 noon.” The building’s roof collapsed.
Firefighters reportedly pulled bags of marijuana from the building, which begs the question of whether someone with an under-the-table growing operation may have been taking advantage of the building being empty.
4323 West Century Boulevard, Inglewood.
Two Giant Empty “Duplexes” Being Flipped
1135 South Ardmore Avenue used to be a house. Now it’s two enormous “duplexes” that have been ready for residents, but empty, for over two years.
Certificates of Occupancy (which are required before anyone can move in) were issued in May 2023. It is now October 2025, and the property is being flipped fully vacant. The listing reads “Ideal for Transitional, Non-Profit, Rehab, or Supportive Housing.”
While rehab facilities, supportive housing, and transitional housing are a necessity and have to go somewhere, it does seem like a disproportionate number of such facilities are plopped into communities that don’t have the funds or connections to push back or successfully demand increased safety measures.
1135 South Ardmore Avenue, Harvard Heights.
We Lost The Stires Staircase Bungalows For Nothing
The owner submitted plans to build 70 units - and only provide SIX low-income units (a net loss of four RSO units). The plans violated the city’s General Plan and Elements. The owner also wanted TOC variances, which aren’t supposed to be allowed with a net loss of RSO units (heck, there isn’t supposed to be a net loss of RSO units), but the city ignored that too.
Oh, and the city also had the parcel classified as a methane hazard site.
The bungalows were torn down last June.
The empty lot is now being sold for $2.5 million.
Ten RSO households displaced…for an empty lot. It may well be years before anything gets built. Why aren’t we redeveloping dead malls first?
1251-1257 Sunset Boulevard, Echo Park.
Emptied, Abated, and Burned
6427-6429 South Figueroa Street was a stately rent-stabilized 1918 triplex. WAS. Past tense.
It last sold in July 2023, with long-term tenants in place. Those tenants are gone.
The triplex was abated, with an ED1 project reportedly planned.
Four days ago, there was a fire. LAFD reports “The fire was contained to contents-only in one room on the first floor.” I smell a possible squatting situation.
6427-6429 South Figueroa Street, South Los Angeles.
Can This Bungalow Be Saved?
The 1913 bungalow at 532 North Oxford Avenue is in danger - a demolition permit has been issued - but there is no approval as of yet for a proposed replacement project.
It has good bones, and I’d bet that a displaced household would love to have it. Why waste a perfectly good house?
532 North Oxford Avenue, Melrose Hill.
The Whitley Avenue Tower of Terror
Shortly after the triplex at 1920 Whitley Avenue celebrated its centennial in February 2022, it was demolished for a tower. The crew didn’t even bother to put up demolition fencing.
The loss of 1920 Whitley didn’t just displace the three rent-stabilized households that lived on the property - it displaced a tenant in a neighboring building due to a worker who “smashed a hole into the kitchen wall of Unit #3 on the 1926 Whitley property. As a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ negligent actions, the hot water vent… to the building was damaged and released asbestos. This caused Unit #3 to become inhabitable. The tenant was forced to be relocated to a hotel and later to another unit as Unit #3 remains uninhabitable due to Defendants’ negligent operation of the backhoe.” The owners of the damaged building demanded a jury trial for Negligence and Trespass.
The owners of another neighboring building, 1917 Grace Avenue, separately demanded a jury trial, claiming “throughout the Project, Defendants have performed improper and negligent shoring, excavation, and pile driving along the property line between the Whitley Ave. Property and the Grace Ave. Property, including the complete removal of a retaining wall between the [properties]…. did not provide proper notice to Plaintiff regarding the true extent and depth of the excavation… implemented an improper water management system during the construction…. [causing] the Grace Ave. Property [to suffer] serious damage, including but not limited to: consolidation and displacement of the bearing soils of the… rear parking lot area, which has in turn led to settlement, cracks, and craters… [and] damage and disturbance to the foundation of the building.”
The project also reportedly caused water leaks, which led to large potholes in the Whitley/Franklin area. Responsible property owners know that water leaks and poor water management damage foundations and undermine buildings. That could affect the long-term stability of neighboring buildings.
AND IT’S STILL NOT FINISHED! Three years and eight months later, 1920 Whitley is visibly still under construction.
1920 Whitley Avenue, Whitley Heights. (Note: the Google Maps preview shows 1921 Whitley, across the street.)
The Hollywood Center Motel Caught On Fire…AGAIN
Regular readers already know that the long-disused Hollywood Center Motel was originally rental housing and that it has caught on fire several times.
The current owner applied for demolition permits, but did not line up a replacement project first. One of the bungalows had to be knocked down by LAFD. What a waste.
6614-6724 West Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood.
And finally…WAHA Fighting Improper Demolition Permit
If you love LA’s historic districts, you might already get West Adams Heritage’s newsletter. I do, and I was appalled to read the following in Friday’s newsletter (all bolding is mine):
No one should demolish a building without a permit. Yet at 2656 S. Magnolia Avenue a developer demolished a 1905 bungalow situated within the North University Park Specific Plan (NUPSP) AND within the North University Park National Register District.
The developer had approval for a second story addition to the bungalow, but then instead the developer demolished the residence without a permit in September 2022. Almost two years later, Building & Safety issued a retroactive demolition permit (long after the building was gone), rather than imposing the City’s Scorched Earth Ordinance (which would forbid development for up to five years after an illegal demolition) and without requiring the mandatory Certificate of Appropriateness that should be issued for the Specific Plan.
And also noting that, everywhere in the City the Demolition Notification Ordinance, adopted in 2015, requires property owners to inform abutting neighbors and their Councilmember’s office of any planned demolition activity and to post a public notice on the property. It is impossible to give notice when the building has already been razed.
For these reasons, WAHA has challenged the permit demolition issuance, and the City Planning Commission will hear our appeal on Thursday, November 6 after 8:30. You may attend in person at City Hall or by ZOOM.
Written comments should be addressed to Undine Petrulis, City Planner: undine.petrulis@lacity.org (213-978-1170) and copied to CD9 councilmember.price@lacity.org along with WAHA at communications@westadamsheritage.org
Note: use Case No. 2024-7640-BSA-1A for your communications and for when you look at the meeting agenda.
For attendance/log in information, please see www.planning4la.org/hearings
Three cheers to WAHA for pushing back on this bad behavior. Accountability matters!
Did you know the city even HAD a Scorched Earth Ordinance? The way things tend to go around here, you’d never suspect it existed.