Court ruling removes a key obstacle as city leaders face renewed pressure to advance the Venice Dell affordable housing development.
The Venice Dell affordable housing project, a development that would provide 120 units for low-income and formerly homeless residents on a 2.7-acre site near Venice Beach, has scored another court victory, clearing the latest barrier to its development.
Last month, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the project’s co-developers, overturning a late-2024 decision by the Board of Transportation Commissioners to deny the use of a city-owned parking lot for the housing development. The ruling found that the Los Angeles Housing Department has authority over the lot because the City Council authorized the agency to execute an agreement for the Venice Dell project in 2022.
In order for construction of the project to move forward, the City must complete and implement the remaining approvals and agreements, according to Venice Community Housing, one of its co-developers. Allison Riley, an executive with VCH, told the Los Angeles Times that if the city chooses not to appeal the judge’s ruling, groundbreaking could occur late next year.
“Venice Dell has completed the approvals and secured the funding needed to move forward, and we’re hopeful the City will comply with the court order without objection,” VCH said in a statement to Mirror Media Group.
Set for development at 200 N. Venice Blvd., one block inland from Venice beach and a short walk from the canals, Venice Dell would include 120 units, commercial space and parking garages. After a 2016 bid for affordable housing proposals, Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing were chosen as co-developers for the site.
But the City has stood as an obstruction to Venice Dell.
Despite approvals from City Council in 2021 and 2022, along with being granted a coastal development permit from the California Coastal Commission in 2024, the city has reportedly spent over $1 million on outside counsel fees related to the project. Opposition has also come from locals. In 2024, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejected an effort by The Coalition for Safe Coastal Development to challenge the project.
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Westside, has continuously criticized the project, once referring to it as a “sweetheart deal between the former council member and his political allies” and as something “based on a lot of fraud and corruption.”
Councilwoman Traci Park’s office did not respond to inquiries from Mirror Media Group about the recent court ruling and the future of the project.
Last year, the California Department of Housing and Community Development awarded the project $42.5 million in conditional state funding. In February, weeks after the City Attorney’s Office requested $760,000 for legal efforts to oppose the development, the county awarded $3 million in funding to Venice Dell. At the time, County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath criticized the City’s obstruction efforts, saying, “It is time for the city to get out of its own way and allow Venice Dell to move forward.”
“We can keep wasting taxpayer dollars fighting approved affordable housing, or we can start building it before the state takes even more local control out of our hands.” County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said in a social media post last month following the ruling. “Enough delays. Enough lawsuits. Let’s get this project built and focus on getting people housed.”
The latest development in the Venice Dell saga comes upon completion of the race for Council District 11’s seat, an election defined by housing. Incumbent Park’s progressive opponent Faizah Malik, a civil rights attorney, campaigned on housing affordability, stating that, if elected, she would “immediately unlock housing production when in office, which includes the Venice Dell project, which has been repeatedly stalled.”
Park received 35,043 votes, or 64.83%, in the election, while Malik garnered 19,007 votes, or 35.17%.
