Good morning and welcome to Records LA – City Hall newsletter. With the support of Rebecca Ellis, Dakota Smith and Julia Wick, it is David Zanizer, providing the latest in LA city and county governments.

Real Estate developer Rick Caruso has had several choice words over the years for CEQA, the state’s highly misused 55-year-old environmental law.

When he ran for mayor in 2022, he revealed that he saw Ceqa as a hurdle to building a much-needed housing in LA – he New measures have been sought It will crack down on “frivolous” CEQA lawsuits (including $15,000 application fees), while also increasing transparency among unions and environmental groups that use the law “unfairly.”

A year later, Caruso said After the podcast The law was also frequently used by opponents of his shopping mall.

“All the projects we were building were being sued by the adjacent indoor mall to stop us,” he said. “And they used CEQA, a California environment. [law]as a reason to stop us. ”

Now, The Grove LLC, the shopping mall owned by Caruso and made him famous in LA, has filed its own environmental lawsuit targeting one of its neighbors. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the city’s approval of the TVC project, a $100 million expansion and renovation of the former CBS TV City Studios.

In the 43-page lawsuit, Grove’s lawyers said city leaders showed a “stellar neglect” of CEQA when they approved the project. Glove’s legal team calls the project “undefined without being frustrated,” making it impossible for the public to grasp its size and environmental impact.

Caruso appears to have been everywhere for the past month, denounced the preparations and responses of the wildfires that tore apart the Pacific Pallisard, destroying thousands of homes – Two people owned by his family.

On the first night of the Palisade fire, Caruso bumped into Fox 11 Mayor Karen Bass about the lack of water flowing from the LA fire hydrant and the fact that he was in Ghana when the flames broke out. Above Joe Rogan’s podcast A few weeks later, he called for the expulsion of the top executives of the Ministry of Water and Power.

The city council approved the TVC project on January 7th, the first day of the Palisade fire. Supporters said it provides much needed boosts for film and television production in cities where many in the industry are losing their jobs. Opponents said it flooded the neighborhood with traffic while doing little to deal with the decline of the L.A. industry.

On February 3, four days before Grove filed a lawsuit against the city and TVC developers, Caruso dismissed participation in the legal battle, saying he was “not directly involved.”

“I own the gloves, and that doesn’t mean I’m involved in lawsuits with my neighbors every day. In an interview with The Times, he has an incredible team to handle it.

(According to the lawsuit, Grove LLC is doing business in California as GFM LLC. According to state business records, Caruso is GFM’s CEO.)

Caruso in his interview claimed that he was not trying to torpedo the TVC development, saying that his company’s objections were “all about truck traffic and loading.”

“We’ve never been against the project,” he said. “We were against how they brought their trucks.”

In fact, the Globe lawsuit calls for judges to block the construction of the TVC project, overturning various city approvals, including environmental impact reports. The city has violated not only the CEQA, but also the state housing laws, and even claims to measure HLA.

Lawyers for The Grove, a local shopping attraction, said the TVC development will increase traffic congestion and “increase the risk of pedestrian injuries and death.”

The Globe lawsuit is currently one of at least four attempts to overturn TVC approvals developed by Hackman Capital Partners. Beverly Wilshire Holmes Asson, who has been filing environmental lawsuits for decades, has submitted the project, saying that Hackman received a “significant increase in height and density.”

Save Beverly Fairfax said in another lawsuit that the TVC project “cannot address the real issues that plague Los Angeles production.” Af Gilmore Co., owner of the original farmers market next to Grove, said in his submission that the city was “running CEQA roughly.”

Zach Sokolov, senior vice president of Hackman, called the quartet of the lawsuit “CEQA’s unfortunate but predictable abuse.” In a statement, Hackman, who owns and operates almost 20 studio properties, has gone through a lengthy review process, and thousands of people working in neighbours, business groups, historic preservationists, and film and television productions. He said he gained support from people.

“Despite these ongoing efforts to block this investment in the entertainment industry, we continue to stick with our commitment to keeping Hollywood in Hollywood,” he said.

Catherine Clinch, a longtime television writer who worked on shows such as “The Love Boat” and “Hart to Hart,” described Caruso’s actions as hypocritical, taking into account previous statements. She fears that new legal challenges could delay or even doom TVC projects at a critical time for the industry.

“We need a studio. We have a new studio in New Mexico. We have a new studio in Buffalo, New York, to scream,” said Clinch, who lives nearby.

Cris Robertson, Senior Vice President, Caruso – The company, not the company, said Globe “is a strong supporter of the entertainment industry.”

“But we all need to be good neighbors and without any changes, this project will create additional traffic, parking issues, pollution and other harmful effects on our community,” she said. I said that.

Others in the neighborhood praised Caruso’s involvement.

Shelley Wargers, who co-chairs neighbors for responsible TVC development, said he has “significant concerns” about traffic, emergency response times and the city’s approval process.

“Of course, I’m very pleased to have four suits Caruso has been submitted,” she said. “And I’m frankly grateful that there’s a group with commitment and wherewithal and means to challenge something very troublesome.”

Caruso spoke about the need to maintain Hollywood production in Los Angeles during a failed campaign for the mayor. But that message was eroded by his fight with the company and TVC.

For now, Caruso has largely avoided questions about his political future, and told the Times last week that he hasn’t considered whether he will run for his second office. If the lawsuit is dragged down and he launches another campaign, the future of the TV city could become a powerful issue.

The state of play

– Emperor War: Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Base Last week, reversed her course on planning to pay for her disaster recovery city; Steve Soborov$500,000 for 90 days of work – compensation covered by private charity. After the Times reported on the arrangement, Soborov defended the amount, saying that his expertise was worth the fee. However, critics then began to oppose the deal. Monica Rodriguez It is called “indecent.” According to Bass, Soboroff works for free.

– Who is first?: The struggle over Soborov is part of a bigger issue that has disrupted the public since the launch of the Pallisad fire: Who is in charge? Soboroff was initially tasked with developing a comprehensive reconstruction strategy. Bass then announced that it had chosen Hagerty Consulting, a disaster recovery company, to help with the job. Hagerty was told to report to Jim Featherstone, the city’s second-ranked emergency management department. Bass said she remains at the top of the Org chart. “The person in charge is here: I,” she told reporters last week.

– Invite the convener: Meanwhile, it is not clear how private groups seeking to help rebuild the fire will work together. Finally, four separate groups were launched, with a long list of civic leaders at the helm. Soborov said on Friday he invited some of those leaders – Casey Wasserman, Magic Johnson, Miguel Santana, Evan Spiegel, Rick Caruso And the Times Owner Patrick Snion – Next week we went to a Zoom meeting to learn about the work that each group is doing.

– Recruiting racist? Four LAPD officials are under investigation to allegedly made racist and sexist remarks while working with new employees. This is the accusation that Mayor Karen Bass called “particularly outrageous and unacceptable.”

– LA LAW: In the face of a major lawsuit from Palisades Fire, the Department of Water and Power has approved a three-year, $10 million contract with top law firms to protect its utility. Munger, Tolles & Olson investigate the claims and respond to lawsuits from residents whose homes have been destroyed or damaged, with the company’s partners charging up to $1,975 per hour.

– Test was thrown: The Federal Cleanup crew confirmed that once debris removal is finished, they will not test soils with properties destroyed by last month’s wildfires. That decision marks a break with the longstanding strategies used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after other major wildfires. Army officials have said that they plan to remove six inches of topsoil from each site, which is sufficient to remove the dangerous contamination properties.

– Yimbys Pounce: Two development groups are suing the city, claiming that the recently approved home construction plans are inadequate and do not comply with state law. Yes, in my backyard and homeowner Californian, city officials argue that growth plans are not showing that they can accommodate an additional 255,000 homes, as required under state law. .

– Lotta-wide lawsuit: There are even more litigation news. The LA County agency has been hit by a record number of lawsuits last year, about 400 more than the previous year.

– Ready for the attack: According to internal documents reviewed by The Times, federal law enforcement agents plan to take “large” immigration enforcement actions in LA by the end of the month. Meanwhile, immigration rights activists have vowed to disrupt the attack.

– Preparation for ’26: The Recreation Bureau began laying the foundation for bond measures in 2026 to generate funding for the facility. Meanwhile, two councillors – Rodriguez and Traci Park – The council will not move fast enough in preparing another 2026 bond measure for the construction or repair of the fire station. Efforts to assess the needs of fire departments have been the subject of lengthy discussions on the council floor this week.

Quick Hit

• Where is the inside? The mayor’s signature program to combat the homelessness was located on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Custer Avenue. There, the camp filled a dead end next to the CVS Pharmacy. The location is on the councillor eunisses Hernandez district. Inside Safe also went to Sixth Avenue and Alameda Streets in the Councillor’s Downtown Section Isabel Jurad district.
• At the docket next week: County Board of Supervisors meets on Tuesday and takes action Excluding the landlord temporarily From kicking tenants out for unpaid if they show that they are financially affected by wildfires. This proposal will protect tenants who rent between February 1, 2025 and January 31, 2026.