Home Depot Inc. filed suit Friday against the city of Los Angeles, alleging that the City Council ignored established procedures in revoking a permit to convert an abandoned Kmart store in Sunland-Tujunga into a Home Depot center.
In August, after the home improvement chain had already spent $2 million to remodel the site, the City Council revoked Home Depot’s building permit, which had been granted a year before.
The vote came in response to Sunland-Tujunga residents’ campaign to keep Home Depot out of their neighborhood. The residents said they didn’t want the level of additional car and truck traffic a Home Depot store would create, as well as the prospect of the site becoming a haven for day laborers. They had favored a smaller-scale general merchandise store and had been protesting the project for three years.
In voting to revoke the building permit, the council rejected a fierce lobbying effort by Home Depot and top local business officials to preserve the permit. Home Depot had contended that it was unfair and arbitrary to change the approval process midstream.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Los Angeles, reiterated that charge, with Home Depot calling the council’s action “political interference.”
“The Home Depot has been unfortunately singled out by the City of Los Angeles for unfair treatment,” Home Depot director of real estate for the Western region, Jeff Nichols, said in a statement.
Standing with Home Depot at the announcement of the lawsuit were representatives of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, the Central City Association and the California Business Properties Association.
“The action by the City Council has sent a shockwave through the business community that there is no longer any certainty in the approval process and that at any time politics can trump job creation and economic development,” said Rex Hime, president and chief executive of the California Business Properties Association.
Nick Velasquez, spokesman for Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo issued a statement on the lawsuit filing.
“The city attorney believes the council’s action was appropriate and will vigorously defend the city in this action,” Velasquez said.
