Three weeks ago, SCAG released its official SB 79 map and West Hollywood’s three planned K Line station areas weren’t on it. Depending on where you stand on SB 79, that was either a relief or a disappointment. Vice Mayor Danny Hang pointed to the map as a reason not to pursue a TODAP — the local plan residents had been asking for, the same tool Beverly Hills approved and Culver City is now preparing.
Last week the state stepped in.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development — HCD, the agency that enforces SB 79 — sent a formal directive to the Southern California Association of Governments on June 22. SCAG is the regional planning body that draws the SB 79 map. HCD told SCAG its methodology was wrong. The K Line has an approved route. That’s enough to put it back on the map. Environmental clearance doesn’t matter.
SCAG complied. The K Line Northern Extension is now listed as Item 25 in the corrections going before the SCAG Regional Council Thursday, in a document obtained by WEHOonline. Four words: “Add K Line Northern Extension.” West Hollywood’s three planned station areas — Santa Monica and San Vicente, Santa Monica and Fairfax, and Santa Monica and La Brea — are going on the map.
SB 79 takes effect Wednesday. The Regional Council votes Thursday.
SCAG had taken the position that only projects with completed environmental clearance or committed construction funding qualified as TOD stops. The K Line has neither. West Hollywood got a reprieve. Some Council members pointed to the map as a reason not to act.
WEHOonline reported at the time that HCD could still push back. It’s the enforcement authority under SB 79. Its own guidance had been broader than what SCAG adopted. The open question was whether it would pick the fight. It did.
The June 22 directive answered it. SCAG’s staff report going before the Regional Council Thursday says it plainly: “Following additional review, HCD provided further direction to SCAG on June 22, 2026, indicating that SB 79 maps should include planned projects with a locally preferred alternative and should not be limited to projects that have completed environmental clearance. Accordingly, the methodology has been revised to reflect this additional HCD direction.”
That’s the state telling the regional planning agency it got the law wrong. SCAG is correcting itself before the vote. A West Hollywood resident with detailed knowledge of the SB 79 process independently confirmed the June 22 HCD directive and said they have filed a Public Records Request to obtain further details. Another source who reviewed the packet raised a question worth noting. HCD’s directive specifically addressed the environmental clearance requirement. Whether proof of financing could still be a separate factor in final eligibility determinations remains an open question.
Vice Mayor Danny Hang said at the May 18 meeting he needed to see the SCAG maps before committing to a TODAP. “We could be having this meeting all for nothing,” he said. The maps came June 1. West Hollywood wasn’t on them. Hang got what he asked for. The City still took no action. Three weeks later HCD told SCAG to add the K Line anyway. The maps Hang was waiting for are being corrected before they’re even final.
West Hollywood’s representative on the SCAG committee, Councilmember Chelsea Byers, voted against the map at the June 4 meeting — the one that kept West Hollywood’s K Line stations off the upzoning list. The map residents had spent months fighting to stay off of. Their representative voted to put them on it.
Her position has been consistent. Byers has argued that higher-density buildings near transit make sense citywide and that West Hollywood’s Zoning Improvement Program is sufficient. Staff told Council directly and on the record that ZIP cannot override SB 79 where state law applies. They are not the same instrument. HCD has now done what Byers’ June 4 motion could not. The K Line goes on the map.
West Hollywood still has no TODAP.
A Transit-Oriented Development Alternative Plan is the tool SB 79 gives cities to shape where density lands — toward commercial corridors, away from single-family blocks, away from fire hazard zones. Beverly Hills started working on one in January. Got state approval June 9. West Hollywood’s City Council met May 18. Residents stayed until 12:30 in the morning. Thirty-eight people spoke. All but one wanted a TODAP.
“Taking no action is not neutral,” City Council candidate Kyle Brazeal said that night. “It is an abdication of your responsibility.” City Staff had confirmed more than 1,100 rent-stabilized units could be impacted without additional protections.
Ellen Harrington, a cultural historian and nearly 40-year West Hollywood resident, said what most of the room had been saying all night. “There needs to be a balance between future development and preserving our special neighborhood quality,” she said. “Why wouldn’t West Hollywood do everything in its power to find creative ways to respond to SB 79? We are the creative city, after all.”
Jim Perkins, a 40-year resident, took it back further. “I want to take us back to where we started, 42 years ago,” he said. “It was driven by an intense desire to set ourselves apart and to actually structure what we want. We built a beautiful city. It’s by design. It’s by intent. And TODAP allows that to continue.”
They went home without a vote.
Mayor Heilman continued the item to June 15 and promised a map update. The map came June 1. West Hollywood wasn’t on it. June 15 came and went. SB 79 was on the consent calendar. No TODAP vote.
Jonathan Finestone, president of the West Hollywood West Residents Association, had warned this moment was coming. “Start thinking about who your elected representatives are — who will fight Sacramento for you, and who will do the right thing when it comes to either rejecting these imaginary stations or creating a TODAP,” he said at a community meeting in April.
They weren’t imaginary. HCD just confirmed it.
Councilmember Lauren Meister said it plainly at the May 18 meeting. “If you relinquish local control to this state, when you have an opportunity to maintain some of that control, there’s no point in being a council member,” she said.
An attorney who wrote to the City Council on behalf of West Hollywood residents in June was clear on one point — nothing in SB 79 prohibits adopting a TODAP after July 1. Culver City is doing exactly that. But the Beverly Hills timeline shows what it takes. Beverly Hills submitted in January. HCD has up to 120 days to review. Final approval came June 9. West Hollywood starts today and it’s looking at October at the earliest.
In the meantime, near a Tier 2 light rail stop, SB 79 sets a minimum height floor of 65 feet within a quarter mile and 55 feet within a half mile. Developers can build by right. Stack that with State Density Bonus Law and the ceilings go higher. On a 4,000 square foot lot that can mean 26 units or more. No parking required. Setbacks as narrow as three or four feet. Nick Maricich, the City’s Director of Community Development, confirmed to WEHOonline that ZIP cannot override any of it where state law applies. The Regional Council votes Thursday. The K Line correction goes with it.
Hang said he needed to see the maps before he could act. Turns out the maps were never the issue.
Related Coverage
Threatened Removals, No Vote: West Hollywood’s SB 79 Council Meeting Goes Until 12:30 A.M.
West Hollywood SB 79 Map Is Out — City’s K-Line Stops Didn’t Make the Cut
Beverly Hills Filed Its SB 79 TODAP. West Hollywood Is Still Stuck at the Station.
West Hollywood May Dodge SB 79 on July 1 After SCAG Draft Map Released
Attorney Warns West Hollywood Is ‘Deliberately Ignoring’ SB 79 Protections
West Hollywood Gets Its Subway. Metro Board Approves K Line Northern Extension Route.
Is it true Mr. Mayor, that Chelsea Byers is paid by the housing lobby and paid by the SB79 campaign? If so are you going to ask her to recuse herself from any SB79 vote or do we need to sue the city council to force a TODAP?
The council needs to act now to establish a TODAP & neighborhood residents will need to sue if developments pop up before it is established. Courts should delay any egregious building developments given the K Line expansion final route was just approved and there was incorrect information provided to the city. Act now council members!
Chelsea Byers, a relative newcomer and political carpetbagger who has shown remarkable hostility toward long-time West Hollywood residents, has spent months effectively telling the people who built this city to sit down, shut up, and accept whatever Sacramento wants. In my view, she’s far more interested in carrying water for state bureaucrats and ideological allies than representing the residents who actually elected her. Long-time residents aren’t obstacles to be steamrolled; they’re the people who built this community and deserve far more respect than they’ve received.
You are very much not alone in your negative assessment of Chelsea Byers’ willful ignorance of West Hollywood residents’ density placement concerns, Alan!
No, he’s not alone!
SCAG just proved there was a legitimate debate all along. Chelsea Byers, a political carpetbagger who arrived in West Hollywood and immediately presumed to lecture people who’ve lived here for decades, has spent months effectively telling long-time residents to go fuck themselves if they questioned her agenda. Turns out those residents were asking exactly the right questions.
SB 79 clearly indicates that When a new transit route or extension is planned that was not identified in the applicable regional transportation plan on or before January 1, 2026, those stops shall not be eligible as transit-oriented development stops
LA METRO didn’t approve these stops until March 26 2026. How are these stops on the map???? Byers, Erickson, Hang and Solomon are forcing them against the City’s interests.
This is sickening. At he June 4 SCAG meeting. Chelsea Byers tried to push forward the subway stops without an environmental report. Then Andrew Solomon from Weho Planning called in “on a private citizen capacity” saying there would be lawsuits if the WeHo subway stops are not on the map. Our Council and Planning departments are giving the keys of the city to developers and ignoring residents. The City doesn’t even have the 35000 inhabitants required for SB79!!!! The corruption is unhinged. VOTE BYERS, ERICKSON AND HANG OUT!
Really sad how West Hollywood has taken action on what SB79 will do to our already dense city limits. Vote out those who support SB79 and those running on the ballot supporting it with no TODAP
Yes David-
Any West Hollywood City Council candidate that hopes to receive my vote in November must be pro-TODAP asap and anti-Fountain Ave. road/parking diet fiasco.
A week ago, I wrote an op-ed for WEHOonline warning that West Hollywood being left off the SB 79 map was a reprieve, not a permanent exemption. I have been very vocal about this because the stakes are real. This was never about being anti-housing. I am pro-housing, pro-affordable housing, pro-housing-that-is-affordable, and pro-building near transit. But saying yes to housing should not mean saying yes to chaos, displacement, or giving up local control when the City still has tools available. A TODAP is how West Hollywood can shape where density goes, protect renters, direct growth toward commercial corridors, and plan… Read more »
Kody-
I knew you were correct when you previously stated being left off the SCAG map was just a temporary reprieve. Did think the duration would be a bit longer!
The time for a TODAP is now folks/ Council- as of June 22 courtesy of HCD we are already behind on implementing a common sense plan for where additional housing density should be directed.
Isn’t that convenient. The cabal has gotten together behind closed doors to make it so. I find it so frustrating that Byers , who moved to WeHo a nanosecond ago has disregard residents and fundamentally push to destroy West Hollywood as we know it. Anyone who votes for her again needs to get their head examined.
Chelsea Byers is like a surgeon who operates on you with a meat ax rather than a scalpel. Yes, a subway opens up the City for a substantial increase in population density, but SB 79 dictates our land use decisions in ways that completely ignore our needs and the character of the City. We can accommodate the demands of SB 79 with locally made decisions that include residents if the City Council adopts a TODAP. Stubbornly taking simplistic stances based on ideology rather than the needs of the community is not brave or heroic leadership. It is intellectual immaturity. We… Read more »