Koreatown parking battle escalates as landlord pushes construction despite legal pause

Parking space showdown continues at Koreatown apartment

The battle between landlord and tenant continues to heat up in Koreatown.

LOS ANGELES - A parking space showdown continues at a Koreatown apartment as tenants of the building tried to stop work crews from removing their parking spots.

What we know:

Earlier this year, the property manager of an apartment building on Kingsley Drive announced that they'd be building additional dwelling units, or ADUs, but at the cost of tenants losing their parking space. 

Since August, residents have been fighting back by protesting and refusing to move their cars… but it appears the landlord and contractor are pushing construction forward despite an active court petition that legally requires all work to pause due to what residents call 'unlawful removal of tenant parking.' 

What they're saying:

"They literally just strong armed us out of the way, put up this fencing and are going to proceed with construction anyway, despite us having a court proceeding like next month. Like they don't care about that at all. They're just going to do whatever they want. And their answer is ‘try and stop us’. So we're out here trying to stop them. They put up fencing anyway," said tenant Mel Raymond. 

Tenants say the situation escalated overnight as five cars were towed out of the parking garage and fencing was put up to block cars from going in. 

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Koreatown tenants could lose parking to new housing units, prompting protest

Dig deeper:

Under Senate Bill 1211, which went into action after the governor signed it late last year, a property owner doesn't have to provide replacement parking when converting a garage, carport, or covered parking structure into an ADU.