The Legal Battle Over Housing Development in Beverly Hills is Intensifying

This week, a prominent developer filed two separate lawsuits against the city, arguing that officials unfairly rejected its applications for large-scale Builder’s Remedy projects—despite state laws meant to fast-track exactly these types of developments.

The nearly identical lawsuits, submitted by 8800 Wilshire Associates, LP and 8820 Wilshire Associates, LP, allege that Beverly Hills violated the Housing Accountability Act (HAA) and the Permit Streamlining Act (PSA) when it denied their applications for two proposed towers on Wilshire Boulevard. Each would rise 19 stories high and include over 130 units, with roughly 12% set aside for affordable housing.

“Rather than coming to grips with the fact that petitioner’s project is subject to the HAA’s Builder’s Remedy, the city has engaged in a course of conduct that is riddled with violations of state housing law,” both suits state.

The two Wilshire Blvd. projects, located between Robertson Blvd. and Clark Drive, were initially submitted in December 2023, at a time when Beverly Hills lacked a certified housing element, the very gap in planning that triggers eligibility for Builder’s Remedy protections.

When full development applications were submitted in September 2024, the city responded with back-to-back letters claiming the applications were incomplete and had undergone plan changes that invalidated their eligibility for Builder’s Remedy.

The developer strongly disagrees, arguing that the minor changes are permissible under both municipal code and state law, and that the city is inventing legal barriers to stop the projects from moving forward.

Attorney Ryan Leaderman, representing the developer, said bluntly:

“The statute doesn’t say you can’t change your project. The city is reading in a requirement that doesn’t exist in the law.”

Leaderman also represents two other Builder’s Remedy projects that have been denied by the city and hinted that more litigation is on the horizon.

Currently, Beverly Hills is reviewing 14 Builder’s Remedy applications in various stages. Seven of those have been flagged as “incomplete,” and five more are caught up in debates over Environmental Impact Reviews.

In total, this brings the number of lawsuits filed against the city over Builder’s Remedy denials to four, two for the Wilshire Blvd. towers and two more related to a proposed 19-story development at 125–129 S. Linden Drive, which includes 165 housing units and a hotel.

The city’s position?

According to Beverly Hills City Attorney Laurence Wiener, “We are confident that the city has treated the projects appropriately. Unfortunately, these projects increased their building construction area by more than 20 percent which disqualifies the projects from the Builder’s Remedy process.”

For now, the court will decide. Both lawsuits related to the Wilshire towers are headed to trial-setting conferences in early July.

Whether this ends in approvals, amendments, or more lawsuits, one thing is clear: Beverly Hills is becoming a flashpoint in California’s broader housing wars.

According to the Beverly Hills Courier, the city has not yet filed a legal response.