L.A. Power Station May Yield 2,700 Homes Under Builder's Remedy

The closure at the end of the year of a century-old power station in Redondo Beach may have cleared the way for a builder’s remedy project that aims to build up to 2,700 homes on the 49-acre site.

Before that happens, the courts will have to settle a dispute between the Redondo Beach City Council, which has rejected the project under local zoning laws, and the developer, who has filed a lawsuit which maintains the project is eligible to move forward under builder’s remedy.

The plans that were filed in July 2022 by the site’s owner, developer Leo Pustilnikov, may have been the first in the state to invoke builder’s remedy, according to a report in the Orange County Register.

Builder’s remedy allows developers to bypass local zoning authorities for affordable housing projects in any city that has failed to gain state approval for its Housing Element plan within state deadlines.

The law has been in on the books in California for more than three decades, but was rarely used until last year, when the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) made it clear that the law would be enforced as a key tool to promote rapid development of new housing in the Golden State.

Next Century Power, a firm owned by Pustilnikov, plans for a mixed-use development at the AES Redondo Beach power plant, located at 1,100 North Harbor Drive. Pustilnikov, a partner in Los Angeles-based SLH Investments, bought the natural gas plant from AES in 2020.

The project, to be known as One Redondo, envisions a 3.5M SF development including 2,700 apartments, a 300-room hotel, 550K SF of office space, shops and restaurants, and a 22-acre park. An estimated 540 apartments will be designated affordable, the report said.

In May, the Redondo Beach City Council voted to deny the application for the waterfront project, deciding that the project application was incomplete under the city’s Local Coastal Plan.

The council rejected a determination by HCD that the project qualified for builder’s remedy. When the preliminary builder’s remedy application was filed in 2022, the state maintains that Redondo Beach was still out of compliance on its Housing Element plan.

A lawsuit that was filed by Pustilnikov seeking a court order to force Redondo Beach to process the builder’s remedy application is expected to be heard in court in March. A group known as YIMBY Law also has sued Redondo Beach over its rejection of the One Redondo project.