If you thought the vote last September to approve the controversial Fountain Avenue bike lane project was case closed, a property owner at Flores and Fountain would like to introduce you to his attorneys.
Court documents obtained by WEHOonline show that a West Hollywood property owner sued the City last October over the Fountain Avenue Streetscape Project, challenging the City Council’s determination that Phase 1 was exempt from state environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. The case is pending before Judge Richard L. Fruin at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles. Case No. 25STCP04203.
Michael J. Kilroy owns an eight-unit apartment building at 1308 N. Flores, on the northeast corner of Flores and Fountain. He’s lived on that block more than 20 years. He submitted written objections to the City on August 16, 2025, before the September vote.
Council voted 3-2 back in September to approve Phase 1 of the redesign. Mayor John Heilman and Councilmember Lauren Meister were the two No votes. Councilmembers Chelsea Byers, John Erickson and Danny Hang voted Yes. Same vote, same night — 3-2 — to declare the project exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act. The City filed a Notice of Exemption ten days later. Kilroy filed suit on October 29. He had 35 days from that exemption notice to go to court. He used 34 of them.
Kilroy hired Frank Sandelmann and Brennan Mitch of Beach Cities Law Group out of Manhattan Beach to bring the case. The City is represented by Amanda Daams.
Kilroy says the City skipped a required environmental review
The City invoked three CEQA exemptions to approve Phase 1 without environmental review — one for sustainable transportation projects, two for minor street alterations and bike lane work. Kilroy says none of them hold up on a street like Fountain.
Fountain Avenue moves about 35,000 cars a day. The world-famous roadway holds small, single family homes, multi-unit apartment buildings and condos on both sides. There are driveways every few hundred feet. Kilroy argues reducing Fountain to two lanes will push roughly 40 percent of that traffic somewhere onto side streets — causing more congestion, more idling, more emissions. Kilroy pulled the numbers from Staff who projected the redesign would divert roughly 40 percent of Fountain’s traffic — about 14,000 cars a day — to surrounding streets. The lawsuit says that impact is exactly what knocks out a CEQA exemption. Kilroy argues the City treated Fountain Avenue like a typical street for this kind of project. It isn’t.
“The City’s failure to conduct environmental review constitutes a prejudicial abuse of discretion,” the petition said.
At the September 15 Council meeting, then-Vice Mayor John Heilman — a law professor — made the same argument before the vote. He called Staff’s finding that the project would produce no traffic impact a sleight of hand. Staff used a trip-generation model built for new development, not street reconfiguration. “Staff has no explanation for where those vehicles are gonna go if this proposal is implemented,” he said. The project passed anyway.
The complicated money trail is quite the tail to untangle. Phase 1 takes Fountain from four lanes to two, adds protected bike lanes on both sides, and removes about 210 parking spaces. According to Kilroy’s lawsuit, Phase 1 is estimated at $5 million to $10 million. When we last checked, Phase 2 — sidewalk widening, ADA ramps, new trees, signal upgrades — is expected to cost between $40 million to $50 million and take up to three years.
Kilroy is asking the court to void the September 15 approval
He’s not seeking any kind of money damages, he just wants the September 15 approval thrown out and the City forced to do the environmental review it skipped. He did seek an injunction to stop construction while the case is pending. Nothing’s been frozen. City Attorney Lauren Langer confirmed to WEHOonline no injunction has been issued and no substantive rulings have been made.
The only cause of action is that the exemption was wrong. The lawsuit doesn’t argue the project shouldn’t be built or challenge the Council’s vote. A win for Kilroy and the project goes back for environmental review, which could take a year or more. It might even require design changes. A win for the City means all systems go and the project keeps moving as planned.
The case heads to court in August
The City answered Kilroy in March. They sought attorney’s fees from Kilroy, he moved to strike the request; the City ultimately dropped the demand. Langer said the case is pending and the City’s legal arguments will be laid out through the briefing process. “All of this is expected to happen later this year,” she said. Asked whether the lawsuit affects the construction contract vote expected in May or June, Langer said she had no information on upcoming construction contract votes.
The construction contract is supposed to comeback to Council in May or June. Construction is expected to begin this fall if approved and nothing gets in the way, like a pesky little lawsuit.
Oral hearing before Judge Fruin is set for August 3.
Update: This story has been updated to include comment from West Hollywood City Attorney Lauren Langer.
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September 15th City Council Meeting via WeHoTV below.
Why are people elected and then after, when something impacts hundreds of thousand of people.
Then people say these are bad people. They are not making any common sense decisions. Proof did you see that Los Angeles did not like this decision, it will negatively impact LA residents. And that City of West Hollywood did not consult with Los Angeles at all. Vote Erickson Senate, REALLY can you imagine?
Interesting that Erickson’s statement in the CA voter guide, and on his web site makes no mention of his serving as Mayor of West Hollywood, a City Council member or on the Planning Commission. He only refers to himself as being a “Councilmember.” No affiliation other than he worked with Abbe Land, and no mention of her WeHo affilation either. I find this being hugely disrespectful as he runs for CA Senate, especially as he had committed to serving his full term once elected to the City Council. Any real politcal skils (and I use that term very loosely in… Read more »
Music to my ears. Byers. Erickson the City Hall incompetent. The experienced says “Like I Said” Hope a judge agrees.
This will not get anyone out of their car to ride a bike on Fountain EVER.
Imagine weaponizing the CEQA to stop BIKES in favor of CARS. This is why CEQA needs to be killed.
If you want to live in utopian bucolic Mayberry with your coven of bikers, move out and build your own town. This town is not built for bikes. We’ve seen you in neighborhood and Council meetings. You can twist arguments to help developers, such as avoiding CEQA environmental checks and balances. but we know who you are and your real motivations. All you care for is what you get paid by developers in your mission to create distraction and dissent in West Hollywood. You should be ashamed.
Who voted this people in misinformed progressives?
Lazy locals who only see a familar name after being buried in their campaign propaganda arriving in their mailboxes non-stop.
On the other hand – imagine ignoring the environmental impact of idling cars from increased congestion on clogged roadways. A car that travels 1 mile in 2 minutes pollutes less than a car that travels that same distance in 20 minutes. Sacramento and our council want to ignore that environmental reality in evaluating these decisions. Or imagine ignoring the reality of longer commutes because it was faster to drive around West Hollywood despite more miles to cover just to avoid the gridlock in our city. CEQA has its problems, but so does ignoring real environmental risks of decisions that destroy… Read more »
Kyle Brazeal- Your words are music to my ears as a Fountain Ave resident for decades now. So thrilled I will soon have the opportunity to vote for you to join the West Hollywood City Council to replace the resident deaf Chelsea Byers. Paraphrasing your common sense- ‘Idling cars/ longer trips increase net emissions.’ ‘Relocate additional bike lanes to less busy streets for safety increase and disruption decrease. ‘ Ability to see shades of grey- ‘CEQA has its problems…’ Just the above already checks a lot of boxes for me, and I’m sure many others. And one more big positive… Read more »
Obviously Fountain could be made safer through use of additional signalization but that would not have satisfied the demands of Streets for All. Creating gridlock does enhance our carbon footprint but you can’t expect logic from John Erickson, Chelsea Byers and Danny Hang who are flying off to a Pride event in Amsterdam. Wonder how many miles they will have to bike to offset that carbon footprint.
Touché, Steve!
Interesting that Streets for All is posting an anti- Chelsea meme about the Fountain Bike fiasco on Instagram.
It’s not only certain City Council members who are derelict in their duty by delivering lame proposals that harm more than help the communiuty, but how about the staffers who submit insufficient and faulty data. Off with all their heads!
I live off Franklin in Los Feliz. When the City of Los Angeles added bike lanes to Hollywood Blvd. east of Vine narrowing it to one lane in each direction, it caused traffic to migrate to Franklin Ave. What had been a lightly traversed residential roadway (with a shared bike lane) is now a parking lot during pretty much the entire day. Don’t put bike lanes on Fountain. The traffic would only migrate to the 2 other heavily used thoroughfares, SMB and Sunset.
David –
You are very kind to share your lived experience, especially when you will not be directly impacted. Many cities have subsequently reversed their road diets, so their may be hope for you yet!
I cant believe this passed. The cars area already bumper to bumper during traffic hour, that means they will be there longer and the traffic will divert into our neighborhoods. Also where is all the parking going to go to? Yah into our neighborhoods that dont have additional parking options. Just so a few bikers have a path vs 35k cars trying to get to work? Dumb.
All true Brandon!
And emergency access.
And evacuation speed.
And more emissions from idling cars.
And more honking, road rage from frustrated drivers
And garbage trucks.
And mail/ package trucks.
And food deliveries.
And left turns.
And no review or plan for these issues.
Corrupt Showboaters (Byers, Erickson, Hang) be corruptly showboating!
You called Byers Erickson dumb, but they are dumber than dumb.
I live two buildings south of Fountain Avenue and hear frequent collisions as it is. I don’t think it is a good idea to make the traffic situation worse by getting rid of driving and parking lanes.
This is a driving city, not a small town. A bike lane on Fountain will jam up traffic. There are better ways to control drivers speeding: cameras, more stop signs, radar, etc. No matter how much people love to ride bikes, and all the talk about how great they are for the environment, they are not practical for everyday use (going to work, doing laundry, grocery shopping, etc.) Bikes will not replace cars in a city like L.A. or West Hollywood so let’s move on from this ridiculous idea.
John PhD Erickson, Chelsea Byers and Danny Hang are puppets. They have ignored to listen to the WeHo community. John PhD is always on his phone during City Council meetings. Danny is sleep and daydreaming, and Chelsea nods constantly as if she cares, but she lies, saying “our hands are tied.” Just clueless, careless and ignorant with a tunnel vision, and complete disregard for the residents and the city. They will be moving out of WeHo in no time when their political bosses and consultants tell them that they can move to their next political gig. They will be sued… Read more »
@Jordan have you even read the petition which you categorize as “random”?
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-fountain-ave-bike-lanes?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=mobileNativeShare&utm_campaign=share_petition&recruited_by_id=a6a760c0-be95-012f-a5ea-404046835f95&recruiter=7202189&share_id=WNP4KBWBvV
city planners have zero idea how to improve traffic and safety.
Bike lanes on fountain are not a good idea especially now that bikes are coming more a more with engines!
They should have the bike lanes on less traffic loaded streets. This is not Amsterdam!
Clog the traffic flow and cut parking will not make people use more bikes.
PRC § 21080.25
(b) This division does not apply to any of the following projects:
(1) Pedestrian and bicycle facilities that improve safety, access, or mobility, including new facilities, within the public right-of-way.
A healthy civic process requires more than identifying the narrowest legal pathway to achieve a preferred policy outcome. Otherwise public engagement becomes performative and trust erodes, which is exactly why disputes like this escalate into litigation in the first place.
That is exactly the question; does the Fountain Re-Design actually improve mobility and safety? Not for most people; according to staff it will push at least 25,000 vehicle trips on to other collector streets, mostly Santa Monica Blvd., which will create gridlock, meaning less mobility. The fact that Fountain will be blocked by trash trucks at all hours of the day will interfere with ambulances and other emergency response vehicles. City staff and proponents of this project cherry picked “facts” or simply created their own in order to rationalize this project. Let’s see if this project withstands a real world… Read more »
Well stated, Steve!
If city council and city staff had invited all to the table and discussion this lawsuit wouldn’t have happened. I keep hearing pedestrian improvements are part of this plan. Phase one does nothing to improve sidewalk ADA compliance. If anything is to be done it is at a later stage that has no funding to meet the projected forty million plus price tag. This should have been a pilot program to show everyone the issues that will occur by lane reductions. Sad that no resident living on Fountain was included on the steering committee. The bike coalition had multiple members… Read more »
Andy “Texas” Solomon, stop trying to yuppify our community. You are wrecking West Hollywood and displacing working class residents by allowing your developers tear down buildings and build luxury apartments.
An incredibly frivolous lawsuit. The project is clearly exempt. This will be tossed. Let’s get the cement poured for the new bike lanes. A safer Fountain avenue is coming.
@Jordan The TRUE democratic thing to do would have been to put the Fountain Avenue Streetscape on the ballot and let the voters decide. But, the residents of West Hollywood were shot down with the lame excuse that the kids under 18 who ride bikes wouldn’t be able to vote for it. The truth most likely lay in the fact that the members of Bike LA, could not vote in West Hollywood and the councilmembers pushing it through, knew it would not have passed. In a democracy the majority rules. 1% of commuters in LA travel by bike. The “Bike… Read more »
Jordan, I hope you really read what Stephanie Harker has to say. Many of us ask the simple question why priority overrides every other form of mobility and safety improvement measures in a plan that will likely ever commit to only a phase one plan. The most non-compliant aspect of Fountain Avenue are the sidewalks. This plan does nothing to correct this. In fact the removal of residential parking and reduction to 1 lane per direction makes the street dangerous for emergency vehicles and no clear plan for delivery vehicles to unload along with stopped traffic to accommodate Athens’ garbage… Read more »