Builder Sues Hidden Hills Over Low-Cost Housing Plan

A developer sued Hidden Hills on Monday, accusing the wealthy, gated city west of the San Fernando Valley of reneging on a deal to build affordable housing for senior citizens.

In May, Hidden Hills agreed to the plan to settle a separate lawsuit by Los Angeles County and a private attorney. In July, the city entered into preliminary agreements with a developer to annex 25 acres and build the affordable housing on part of a five-acre portion that would remain outside the city’s gates and network of private streets.

But after opposition surfaced within the community, the City Council withdrew its annexation application from the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission and put the affordable-housing plan on hold pending a poll of residents.

“They’re trying to again delay to the distant future the ultimate thing they have to face up to, which is, you’ve got to pay or provide your fair share of affordable housing,” said Benjamin M. Reznik, an attorney for the developer, H.H. Lasher Road Ltd.

The Los Angeles Superior Court suit seeks a court order forcing Hidden Hills to follow through on its agreements by granting permits to construct the 46-unit affordable housing project and the remainder of the developer’s proposal, including nine luxury homes and a small commercial area.

The suit also seeks $10 million in damages for alleged breach of contract by the city. It asks for an injunction barring the city from “conducting a public opinion poll in lieu of performing its obligations.”

The affordable housing in the development proposal by H.H. Lasher Road Ltd., a partnership managed by Tarzana developer Danny Howard, stems from an earlier lawsuit over the city’s formation of a redevelopment agency in 1984. Hidden Hills formed the agency to finance drainage improvements without imposing taxes. The county and attorney Murray O. Kane sued, contending that the city should not reap the tax benefits of redevelopment because the area was not blighted.

In the settlement of that suit in May, the city agreed to pursue a plan to provide lower cost housing. The city’s pre-annexation agreement with Howard followed in July.

State law requires that 20% of redevelopment agency funds go to affordable housing and that all cities establish a land-use plan that provides for affordable housing.

Reznik served Hidden Hills City Council members with the lawsuit at their regular meeting Monday night.