Following a legal defeat, the Los Angeles City Council has voted to formally rescind the 2019 approval of a proposed hotel development just south of the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.

The project from Relevant Group, slated for a property at 6221 Selma Avenue, had called for the construction of an eight-story hotel with 114 guest rooms with a nearly 2,000-square-foot restaurant atop, while also making use of more than 20,000 square feet of existing commercial space.

At issue was the fact that the project was to be built atop the Tao Restaurant and its three-level subterranean garage, raising concerns that the hotel development had been split in two to reduce its perceived impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act - a practice known as "piecemealing." That argument was made in a lawsuit filed by a neighboring property owner, Sunset Landmark Investment, LLC, which led to a court decision finding that the project may have a significant impact on air quality.

Selma and Wilcox AvenuesGoogle Maps

According to a report to the Council from the City Attorney, Relevant Group and the City worked on a consultant on a revised mitigated negative declaration for the project for a period of four years. Before the revised report could be completed, with delays attributed to a change of counsel on the part of the developer, Sunset Landmark Investments filed a motion asking the court to enter judgement, arguing that four years had been too long to comply with the court order. The court The court ordered the city to set aside and invalidate project approvals in March 2025, and set a deadline to comply by June 12, 2025.

The proposed hotel at the northeast corner of Selma and Wilcox Avenues was to be the latest in a series of hotel projects from Relevant Group in the Hollywood area, following the completion Dream, Tommie, and Thompson hotels. However, the developer was forced to turn over ownership of the latter two properties to lenders after foreclosure in 2023. The company has remained active in Downtown Los Angeles, with plans for a handful of multifamily residential projects.

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