A proposed apartment building in El Sereno has become the latest test of how far Los Angeles will go to build housing quickly, and how much say a neighborhood gets when the answer is "not much."

The project at 5100 E. Huntington Drive would rise five stories and hold 111 units, all of them income-restricted. It would also open with no on-site parking. Residents and business owners gathered this week to protest, arguing that a building of that size without parking will push cars onto streets that are already full.

Why there is no parking

The absence of parking is not an oversight. Under Assembly Bill 2097, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2022, California cities may not require parking for residential development within half a mile of a major transit stop. The Department of City Planning applies the rule across qualifying sites in Los Angeles.

The argument for the law is that structured parking is expensive, and that every space a developer is forced to build is money not spent on housing. Supporters say the requirement pushes up rents and shrinks the number of units a project can deliver. The counter-argument, which is what El Sereno is making, is that the statute measures distance to a transit stop rather than whether people in a given hillside neighborhood actually use it.

The project moves forward without the usual public hearings for a second reason. As 100 percent affordable housing, it qualifies for by-right approval under Mayor Karen Bass's Executive Directive 1, which strips out discretionary review for qualifying affordable projects. That is the point of the directive: to stop needed projects from being talked to death. It also means there is no hearing at which neighbors can formally object.

The demolition that came first

Much of the anger traces to what happened on the site before the debate began. The developer, SoLA Impact, demolished the existing building without a permit. The city opened a code enforcement case in April 2025 after the structure was left open to the public, and as of late April 2026 the case remained under investigation, with a third compliance order issued days earlier. In the meantime, an encampment grew on the cleared lot.

For neighbors, the sequence matters more than the parking count. A developer that skipped a demolition permit is now invoking a state law that removes the neighborhood's ability to weigh in. SoLA Impact declined to comment before LAist's deadline.

More than 1,100 people have signed an El Sereno Neighbors petition demanding a public meeting with their councilmember. "It's kind of outrageous," organizer Claudette Contreras said of the project's effect on the area, calling it "devastating to the small businesses."

The councilmember in the middle

The seat covering El Sereno, Council District 14, belongs to Ysabel Jurado, a former tenants' rights attorney elected on a pro-housing platform. That makes the dispute an awkward one. Her office has not opposed the project, framing the conflict as a false choice: "affordable housing and community voice should not be treated as opposing values," the office said, listing priorities that include accurate information for residents, site safety and enforcement of the rules.

That is a real tension rather than a dodge. The city's housing shortage is severe, and El Sereno is not being singled out. But the same streamlining that lets a needed building go up quickly also removes the forum where a neighborhood would normally raise the practical questions, including where the households in 111 new units will put their cars.

What is actually in dispute

Both sides are arguing past each other on the central fact. Residents estimate the building could add 150 to 200 cars to the neighborhood. That figure is their projection, not a city traffic study, and no such study is required for a by-right project. Whether tenants of an all-affordable building near a transit line will own cars at that rate is precisely the question AB 2097 assumes it already knows the answer to.

What is not in dispute is that the building is coming. Absent a successful challenge to its permits, El Sereno's options are narrow, which is why the fight has moved from the planning counter to the sidewalk.