Builder's Remedy Moves Inland with Hawaiian Gardens Project

"Weeks after a flurry of so-called builder’s remedy project applications in Santa Monica set off a statewide frenzy, the previously obscure legal provision has now appeared in the small L.A. County city of Hawaiian Gardens.

The project comes from Long Beach-based workforce housing developer Urban Pacific, which wants to build a 13-unit project in Hawaiian Gardens, a small, suburban city located in the southeast corner of L.A. County.

The project application was recently denied by the city based on concerns over parking and the project’s lack of commercial space, Scott Choppin, the founder of Urban Pacific, wrote in a Twitter thread.

But after consulting with the powerhouse law firm Holland & Knight, which has expressed interest in taking on builder’s remedy projects, Urban Pacific filed a new preliminary application on Monday explicitly invoking builder’s remedy. A letter attached to the application was signed by a Holland & Knight attorney based in San Francisco."