Four months after the Beverly Hills Planning Commission voted to reject a proposed Builder's Remedy high-rise on Burton Way, the City Council has opted to reverse course.

At its meeting on March 24, the Council voted to grant the appeal filed by developer Crescent Heights regarding the Planning Commission's November 2025 decision over the project at 8844 Burton Way. The project calls for the construction of a 26-story building featuring 200 studio, two-, and three-bedroom homes, including 22 units of deed-restricted affordable housing, above a parking structure.

Aerial view looking southeastLarge Architecture

While Commissioners grudgingly voted to approve a handful of similar Builder's Remedy applications in 2025, the Burton Way development faced a higher degree of pushback. Commissioners initially took steps to deny the project in October of last year, arguing that the project had violated anti-segregation laws by concentrating its affordable housing to the lowest floors of the tower.

After Crescent Heights representatives agreed to redistribute the affordable units onto a larger number of floors, Commissioners continued to object to the height and density of the project. However, the offer of a two-story height reduction was deemed unsatisfactory, and the Commission voted 3-2 to reject the project against the advice of the City Attorney.

The appeal, filed shortly after the Planning Commission meeting, argues that the Commission had been legally prohibited from denying the project due to state housing law. A city attorney review and staff assessment agreed with that conclusion, and recommended that the City Council overturn the denial and approve the project.

View looking southwestOttinger Architects

At the same meeting, the City Council also dealt with the fallout from an earlier legal battle over a Builder's Remedy project.

Following an August 2025 ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, the City Council was also forced to rescind its denial of developer's Leo Pustilnikov's proposal to replace a parking lot at 125 S. Linden Drive with a 19-story tower featuring 165 apartments  - 20 percent of which would be rented to lower income households - and a 73-room hotel.

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