As part of citywide efforts to tackle homelessness, over a decade ago Los Angeles set out to identify underutilized city property that would be suitable for the construction of affordable housing units. One of the spots identified was a parking lot near Venice Beach, known as lot 731.
The city agreed to replace the parking lot with a 120-unit affordable and permanent supportive housing development called Venice Dell. In 2022, the city entered a formal development agreement with two affordable housing nonprofits and promised full support of the project. The project has since gone through all the proper approval channels and acquired funding from both the county and the state. Yet, four years later, no progress has been made on the lot.
Los Angeles now faces multiple lawsuits related to Venice Dell, including one filed by a team of Venable attorneys—partners Daniel Silverman and Belinda Vega, counsel Robert Meyerhoff, associate Matthew Raber, and former counsel Sarah Hoffman. The team is suing the city for breach of contract on behalf of pro bono clients Venice Community Housing and Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, the project's developers that have already spent millions acquiring proper permits and approvals.
The development's fate changed in late 2022 when Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and Councilmember Traci Park, who represents Venice Beach, took office. Both made killing the project a central issue of their campaigns.
Shortly after they took office, the city issued a stop-work order to the planning staff who were working on the project and withdrew all support and cooperation. In late 2024, the city's Board of Transportation Commissioners (BOTC) held a special hearing and denied the use of the lot for affordable housing.
Hoffman, a land use attorney in Venable's San Francisco office, said that by 2023 the approvals were all in place, and the city just needed to tick a few more boxes to break ground on the project.
"One of the important things the city agreed to do in 2022 was not unreasonably delay or withhold any approval that's required for the project to happen," she said. "What we're seeking is called specific performance, where we're basically saying, 'Look, just get out of our way and build this project.'"
The state of California, which has already awarded more than $42 million in funding to Venice Dell, has questioned whether the BOTC has the authority to kill the project. Last fall, the California Department of Housing and Community Development sent a letter of inquiry to the Los Angeles Housing Department seeking information on the role of the city's BOTC in the project and an explanation for why the BOTC held a hearing after the project was approved. The state also threatened to issue a Corrective Action Letter regarding the city's housing element and initiate a review of its Prohousing Designation status, which could limit the city's access to funds and strip it of some zoning authority.
The Venable team has already devoted hundreds of pro bono hours to this matter, and litigation is expected to continue into 2027 and beyond as lawsuits related to the project from other parties make their way through the courts. The attorneys have also spent months trying to get documents related to the project from the city in accordance with California Public Records Act requests, and a judge recently granted the team a motion to compel production of documents.
Hoffman has multiple pro bono matters under her belt and said she appreciates the opportunities that such cases present for her as counsel.
"Realistically, when you have huge corporations that we do work for, they want a partner to appear in court and handle important hearings, whereas the pro bono work gives you greater autonomy and the ability to just run with the case," she said. "That's something I've really enjoyed about doing this sort of work."
Raber, a second-year associate, also welcomes the real-world experience that pro bono work brings.
"I took depositions and took the lead drafting dispositive motions, like a summary judgment motion, and I appeared in court. I'm not experienced enough that a paying client would trust me with that," he said. "For this case, there are also so many interesting issues that I don't have experience with, and Sarah's an expert, so I'm learning from her, getting that direction, and taking the first pass at drafting complaints and petitions. It's such good experience and so rewarding."