Culver City : Agency Picks City Hall Site

The City Council, acting as the Redevelopment Agency, has authorized the purchase of three lots in the 4000 block of Lafayette Place to be used for the new city hall site.

The agency expects to relocate tenants and demolish the hotel and apartment building on the lots within 12 months.

Stuart Tracy, a tenant in the apartment building at 4025 Lafayette Place, asked the agency what provisions would be made for tenants and why the agency had not notified them of its purchase plans.

Several tenants from the 42-room residential hotel at 4021 Lafayette Place who did not address the agency said after the meeting Monday night that they had heard about the demolition plans from neighbors. They said they were concerned about finding replacement housing at rates comparable to those in the hotel.

“We wouldn’t be able to relocate, no matter what the city gives us,” said Frank, a tenant who has lived more than 20 years in the hotel and who only gave his first name. “Rents are out of sight, everybody knows that.”

Jody Hall-Esser, assistant executive director of the agency, said the agency would begin contacting and relocating tenants while it proceeds with the purchase of the properties.

Susan Berg, a Redevelopment Agency project manager, added that the agency has successfully relocated all tenants from buildings demolished under its authority. Under state law, tenants are entitled to up to $500 in direct moving costs and a total of $4,000 in rent subsidies spread out over four years.

Hall-Esser said it has never been the agency’s policy to notify tenants while a purchase was still being considered.

Andy Patel, the manager of the Studio Center Hotel, and Stephen Venner, the owner of the building at 4025 Lafayette Place, said they did not consider the agency’s decision a commitment to buy the properties. But Hall-Esser said the agency will begin the process of acquiring those buildings.