Part 3: The Real Housing Problem? Approved Projects That Never Get Built

West Hollywood housing projects stalled for years are part of a debate over streamlining the development approval process.

Some commissioners think the City’s chasing the wrong problem. Others say they’re simply catching up to the reality that state law has already stripped away local control.

This is Part 3 of a three-part series on the West Hollywood Planning Commission’s housing streamlining debate from Thursday, January 16. Part 1 covered Commissioner Lynn Hoopingarner’s invocation of the Brown Act. Part 2 examined how state housing laws have stripped commissioners of power.

While some argued at last Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting that the building approval process takes too long and the commission has little to no discretionary influence, Commissioner Lynn Hoopingarner pointed to a different bottleneck: developers who get approvals and don’t build. 

“The problem is not exclusively the public process,” she said.

Her evidence? Fifteen major commercial construction projects sitting stalled or incomplete in West Hollywood despite getting City approvals years ago. Some have been collecting dust for a decade.

What Staff didn’t say

Staff says the public approval process is one reason there’s a lag in housing development but some commissioners say they didn’t identify all the factors that often stall projects.

“The problem is statewide,” Hoopingarner said. “If the problem is the public approval process, then that would seem to be a statewide problem, because the whole state has a problem.”

She gave examples: projects on Doheny that went into bankruptcy, multiple stalled projects on Ogden, a project near her house that’s been under construction for two and a half years and remains stuck at the first floor.

Then she cited a number that undercuts the entire streamlining push: 78% of the approval process happens before a project even reaches the Planning Commission.

“We have an open agenda, more nights than not, and yet, we are supposedly, this public process is the bottleneck,” Hoopingarner said.

Staff’s data includes projects that developers chose to delay for years, she added. “What little benefit might be achieved is at the expense of almost complete removal of public oversight for virtually all proposed construction in West Hollywood.”

That last point is important. The streamlining ordinance doesn’t just affect housing — it applies to all development in West Hollywood, commercial and residential. The City Council’s May directive asked Staff to remove Planning Commission review for projects under 100 units. Commissioner Andrew Solomon’s motion Thursday proposes to eliminate Planning Commission review for any code-compliant project, housing or otherwise. His argument, to do otherwise is in essence performative theater. As we learned Thursday night, he’s not wrong. 

Why risk matters more than approval

Commissioner Jesi Harris, who runs an entitlement services company and has a master’s degree in urban planning from USC, explained why approved projects might sit dormant even after clearing the public process.

“One of the things that does add to our paucity of housing is risk,” Harris said. “Money and market capitalize risk, meaning that risk adds to cost. The riskier something is, the more it costs.”

She learned this principle in USC’s real estate development program: uncertainty drives up financing costs. But if Hoopingarner is right that projects are getting approvals and still not building, the risk isn’t coming from the Planning Commission process. It’s coming from market conditions, construction costs, and financing—none of which streamlining can fix.

The City can eliminate public hearings, reduce Planning Commission review to nothing, and approve projects in record time. None of that changes interest rates. None of that makes construction cheaper. None of that guarantees a developer can secure financing or find tenants willing to pay the rents needed to make the project pencil out.

Faring Capital’s stalled promises

Take Faring Capital, the West Hollywood-based developer behind two of the City’s most prominent stalled projects: Robertson Lane and the French Market.

The City Council approved a nine-story, 241-room hotel for Robertson Lane in 2018, along with retail, restaurants and restoration of the historic Factory building. Three years later, Faring slashed the hotel to 109 rooms, added office space and cut restaurant space in half. The City Council approved the modified project in 2022. Mayor Pro Tempore Sepi Shyne called it a project that “will revitalize the Rainbow District and bring an economic boom to West Hollywood.”

Faring requested another extension in October 2024 — the last one allowed under city rules. The entitlements expired in June 2025. Last month, Faring submitted a new, smaller proposal called Robertson Row: two- and three-story buildings instead of nine stories. No hotel.

The Factory building, carefully dismantled in 2016 with plans to reassemble it, has been sitting in storage for nearly a decade.

The French Market followed a similar, painful trajectory. The Planning Commission approved development in December 2019. Faring held a groundbreaking ceremony in 2022 with all five City Council members posing with shovels for photos. The entitlements expired in December 2023. The building plan check expired in May 2023. The French Market still sits empty.

Former Council member John D’Amico wrote that “Faring Capital has been responsible for destroying two iconic LGBTQ cultural landmarks in the heart of West Hollywood. Faring evicted all the tenants and left the businesses that served our community vacant, creating blight in the heart of our community for a decade.”

Both projects demolished existing businesses years before construction would begin — or in these cases, never begin. Robertson Lane demolished Hamburger Haven and other businesses starting in 2016. The site has sat as a vacant hole in the ground for nearly nine years.

The Melrose Triangle housing mess

The Melrose Triangle project at 9040-9098 Santa Monica Boulevard was supposed to add 80 apartment units to West Hollywood’s housing stock, with 24 designated affordable. The mixed-use development also included office and retail space.

Approved in 2014, the project has been dragging neighbors through hell for a decade. Entitlements expired in March 2024, and the building plan check followed soon after.

Workers had already dug a massive hole for underground parking. Groundwater filled it up. Residents started calling it “Lake WeHo.” The City drained roughly a million gallons into the sewer.

In February, the City ordered developers to fill the whole thing back in — 27,000 truck trips over six to nine months. The project would’ve added 80 housing units. Now it’s just an expensive mess getting undone.

Not just one project

West Hollywood’s Community Development Department put out a report in May 2024 looking at the City’s 15 major commercial construction projects. Not one has moved meaningfully toward completion. The report uses the word “None” over and over. Most remain “still little more than plans in a state of flux.”

Seven of those 15 already have their entitlements approved — clearing what’s supposed to be the big hurdle. Doesn’t seem to matter. Progress remains negligible across all the sites.

A seven-story, 116-room hotel proposed for 1040 La Brea is about to lose its entitlements. The Robertson Boulevard project at 645-681 Robertson — that’s separate from Robertson Lane — already let its building plan check expire back in January 2024, with entitlements expiring in December. Ogden has multiple stalled projects. Doheny has bankruptcies.

The financing problem

Developers blame COVID disruptions, inflation, rising interest rates, financing trouble, changing markets.

Those are legitimate obstacles. But here’s the thing: if developers can’t build even after getting approvals, speeding up approvals doesn’t solve the housing shortage. And if commercial developers can’t secure financing to build hotels and office buildings they’ve already gotten approved, why would we expect housing developers to fare better?

Commissioner Andrew Solomon wants to eliminate Planning Commission review for code-compliant projects. He’s not wrong that it’s theater to present to the public as though they or the commission have the ability to influence outcomes for projects that meet code. He also argues discretionary review creates financial risk—lenders charge more and equity investors want higher returns when approval isn’t guaranteed.

Fair point. Except in Faring’s case, they had approvals. Multiple approvals. Extensions on top of extensions. Robertson Lane got approved in 2018, modified and re-approved in 2022, got yet another extension in 2024. Still sitting there.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The City loses too

Here’s what gets lost in the streamlining debate: the City takes on risk when it approves projects. Existing businesses get demolished or displaced. Tax revenue disappears. Neighborhoods wind up with vacant lots and holes in the ground. Historic buildings get taken apart and stuck in storage.

If developers can’t or won’t follow through, the City and community spend years paying for it. Robertson Lane demolished businesses in 2016 and has sat vacant for nearly nine years. The Melrose Triangle became such a long-running flooded pit that residents joked about making it a community pool. The French Market has been empty since Faring evicted tenants — that 2022 groundbreaking ceremony with all five City Council members holding shovels produced nothing but photos.

One housing project is actually getting built. The 910 Wetherly affordable housing development broke ground in October 2025 and has construction underway. The 100% affordable, 89-unit building faced serious neighborhood opposition and went through multiple appeals. Planning Commission approved it, City Council shot down the appeals 4-1.

The developer is West Hollywood Community Housing Corporation, a nonprofit rather than a for-profit outfit. Maybe that’s why it’s actually happening.

The numbers don’t add up

The urgency around streamlining becomes even harder to justify when you look at the numbers. According to the City’s 2024 Housing Element Annual Progress Report presented to the Planning Commission in May, West Hollywood has only permitted 484 units since 2021 toward its RHNA goal of 3,933 units by 2029.

In 2024 alone, just 169 units were permitted — and only 364 units were actually completed. The gap between permits issued and construction finished underscores Hoopingarner’s point: approvals aren’t the bottleneck.

What happens next

The Planning Commission voted 5-2 to continue the housing streamlining proposal and asked Staff to come back with language eliminating Planning Commission review for code-compliant projects.

Hoopingarner and Chair David Gregoire voted no. Vice Chair Stacey Jones voted yes despite expressing deep discomfort with the choice.

“I feel like I’m having to choose between the public process that shapes, not just our community, but our nation, and the need that we see for housing yesterday, so urgently, and people’s right to that,” Jones said. “I don’t like having to make that choice.”

Hoopingarner’s question lingers: if the approval process isn’t what’s stopping housing from getting built, why is the City so focused on streamlining it?

West Hollywood is required to plan for nearly 4,000 new housing units by 2029 under its state housing allocation. The City can make approvals faster, eliminate public hearings, reduce discretionary review to almost nothing.

None of that guarantees developers will actually build. Hoopingarner pointed out that 56% of all Design Review meetings and 10% of all Planning Commission meetings have been canceled due to lack of an agenda. The commission isn’t drowning in applications. It’s often sitting idle.

“I do not make the finding that the streamlining is supported by the facts,” Hoopingarner said.

The 15 stalled projects prove her point. Developers already have a clear path to approvals in West Hollywood. What they apparently don’t have is the financing, the will, or the market conditions to actually build. Streamlining won’t fix that.

You can watch Thursday’s meeting in full below.