(Image by Katie Antonsson)
Everything about 712 New Depot Street* is wrong, from beginning to end. It was all preventable, but does the city care? Of %$^#*@ course not.
Last sold in 2017, 712 New Depot Street was previously a 572-square-foot house built in 1914. The lot is relatively narrow but deep, so it's not surprising that the property was snapped up by a redevelopment-minded buyer.
AT FIRST, the owner did things the right way. They applied for, and got, a permit to demolish the building and clear the lot, with requirements to cap the sewer line and use demolition fencing. That was in 2018.
I can't be sure when construction began on the apartment building; you'd be better off asking a neighbor. You see, THERE IS NO NEW BUILDING PERMIT ON FILE for 712 New Depot Street. See for yourself:
With ZERO building permits on file, it sure looks like the property owner decided to build without bothering to get them. Building without proper permits is supposed to be illegal.
It gets weirder: all new building permits are under an alternate address of 708 New Depot Street. 708 New Depot Street also had a house on it, abated in 2007 and demolished in 2018 just like 712.
Combining two small lots into a bigger one is nothing new in LA; the developer who tore down my great-grandma's boarding house in Sawtelle combined three lots for an apartment building. I am curious as to why permits would only be listed under one of the addresses instead of cross-posted to both for transparency's sake.
This complaint from July 19 refers to construction being done without permits or inspections. LADBS could easily check its own records to determine whether permits were issued or inspections done, but instead "REFERRED TO INSPECTION BUREAU", which seems to be bureaucrat-speak for passing the buck.
I've been seeing quite a lot of that from LADBS in my recent research.
The most recent permits, from the second half of 2022, are for HVAC and an elevator (the building was four stories tall).
The site had electricity. Why didn't the city shut it off?
The building had a wood frame. Why didn't the city demolish the abandoned wood frame to prevent this fire?
There have been many cases of the city having the means to tear down whatever the hell it wanted to tear down, but it did nothing about an obvious fire hazard.
Neighbors also complained about the building being abandoned and unsecured. LADBS apparently passed the buck on that, too.
Complaints about the possibly-illegal construction and the state of the abandoned building were submitted again about six weeks ago. In both cases LADBS decided there was "NO VIOLATION". Did they even go out there and look?
There are also complaints on file under the alternate address: one for the building's abandoned and unsecured state and another one for construction sans proper permits or inspections. LADBS passed the buck to the inspection bureau again.
The construction site is 0.7 miles from LADBS headquarters, or about a 2-minute drive, so it's not like it would have been hard.
Multiple squatters moved in, and where there are squatters, there are fires. Especially when the building is wood-framed.
Antonsson and her neighbors reached out to Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez's office for help. They received none at the time (which does not surprise me in the least).
Antonsson told the Times that there had been four smaller fires at the abandoned construction site this year alone. LADBS has never responded to a report filed by Antonsson, and didn't respond when the Times contacted them, either.
At 3:43 a.m. on Friday, LAFD responded to a massive fire at the abandoned construction site. The fire quickly spread to 877 Bunker Hill Avenue next door. There's horrifying footage on Citizen. Friends of mine took video of the fire's aftermath yesterday.
A 90-year-old man is in critical condition at a hospital, a 55-year-old woman had a burn injury, two other neighbors had unspecified injuries, one firefighter was injured, and another was treated for suspected heat exhaustion. LAFD has opened an arson investigation.
About 70 people have been displaced due to the fire. That includes 19 Section 8 households. (It is VERY, VERY HARD to find a landlord that will accept Section 8 tenants, even though it's illegal to refuse vouchers. Where the hell are the displaced tenants supposed to go?)
The city knew the abandoned construction site was a fire hazard.
The city chose to do nothing.
In the aftermath of the fire, Eunisses' office has been helping the neighbors, but the phrase "too little, too late" comes to mind.
Eunisses pins the blame on tight department budgets (like the resulting fires aren't costing taxpayers a fortune?), lack of policy (so create a better one?), and an inability to hold property owners accountable (so create a way to do that?).
She does correctly state "If [developers] haven’t acquired the finances to develop a project, perhaps they shouldn’t dive into building a project and leaving it half built in the middle of one of the densest neighborhoods in our district".
While I agree with this, the fact of the matter is that the city consistently rubber-stamps whatever the hell developers want - and in this case, chose to ignore an abandoned construction site with a squatter problem.
Eunisses, in the unlikely event you ever read this, I'm throwing down the gauntlet: Will you do right by Angelenos and introduce new policies that would hold developers legally and financially liable for every last bit of the damage that they cause when they fail to secure or complete their projects?
Anything less would smack of mere lip service. You have a 90-year-old constituent fighting for his life in the hospital and dozens of displaced constituents. They are counting on you.
What will you do to hold the owner accountable?
What can you do to prevent this from happening again?
712 New Depot Street, Chinatown.
877 Bunker Hill Avenue, Chinatown.
*Note: several sources mistakenly give Bunker Hill Avenue as the burn site. LAFD identifies the site as 712 New Depot Street. The fire spread to 877 Bunker Hill Avenue, which is next door.
About C.C. de Vere
C.C. is a fourth-generation Angeleno and is horrified at what greed and hubris are doing to Los Angeles.
This website was built by her preservation pals at Esotouric.
