A Los Angeles councilwoman is blasting City Hall for sitting on billions of dollars in property while some lots sit vacant and others remain underused.
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others → blast → property
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who represents parts of LA’s Westside, where city-owned land is among the most valuable in Los Angeles, wants LA to create a development agency to hunt down city-owned sites that could bring in money, jobs and housing, as the city faces financial woes.
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city → represent → woes
“The City of LA owns billions of dollars of real estate,” Yaroslavsky said.
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Yaroslavsky → own → estate
“Some of it sits vacant, but most is just underutilized: one-story maintenance yards, parking lots, low-slung facilities.
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most → sit → it
We should be following New York’s lead and start putting our land to work.”
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We → follow → California
Her office pointed to a Westside maintenance facility staffed by roughly a dozen employees.
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office → point → employees
“The prime Westside land could potentially hold housing or businesses alongside the city operation,” the office said.
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office → hold → operation
“It could generate a ton of revenue.
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It → generate → revenue
But no one at City Hall is charged with looking across LA’s sprawling property holdings for opportunities like it, Yaroslavsky told The Post.
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Yaroslavsky → charge → Post
“Nobody is looking at whether that land could be put to better use,” the councilwoman said.
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councilwoman → look → use
“That’s not a criticism of those departments,” she said.
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she → ’ → departments
The city has never published a total value for any of it.
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city → publish → it
“It’s very hard to come up with value, since value is based on how a property is zoned,” former City Controller Ron Galperin told The Real Deal in 2019.
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Galperin → ’ → 2019
“I was stunned that the city didn’t even know what it owns.”
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it → stun → what
It found 26 sites, together covering roughly 1.7 million square feet, about 39 acres.
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It → find → feet
Five parking lots in Lincoln Heights added about 200,000 more.
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lots → add → more
Even when the city decides it doesn’t need a piece of land, getting rid of it moves slowly.
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it → decide → it
A May 2026 report to the City Council shows the General Services Department is still working from a list of 248 properties identified in a 2018 review.
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Department → show → review
So far this fiscal year the city has sold three properties, for about $302,000 in General Fund revenue, with a fourth expected to close.
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fourth → sell → revenue
The same report recommends declaring 24 city-owned lots in Council District 11 surplus, also on the westside, calling them “the most valuable City properties.”
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report → recommend → them
Staff estimates the sales would bring in about $5.85 million.
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sales → estimate → million
Yaroslavsky wants LA to take a page from New York City, which has an economic development corporation that works on city-owned property.
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that → want → property
New York is now advancing a plan to replace an aging government headquarters with nearly 4,000 homes, including about 1,000 permanently affordable apartments.
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York → advance → apartments
Yaroslavsky’s office says an LA agency could identify sites, negotiate with developers and assemble projects that individual departments would not pursue.
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departments → say → that
They said some could pair market-rate apartments with affordable homes, using the former to help finance the latter.
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some → say → latter
The push comes as LA watches its revenues.
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LA → come → revenues
The city’s budget office projects that its most economy-sensitive taxes will grow 3.3% next year, below their historical average of 3.8%.
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taxes → project → %
Last fiscal year, revenue came in $160 million below what the adopted budget assumed.
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budget → come → what
“It is imperative that we maintain the City’s long-term fiscal health at the forefront of our discussions,” City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo wrote this spring in his budget review.
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Szabo → maintain → review
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