AIDS Healthcare Foundation sues Los Angeles to stop demolition

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Los Angeles, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles Aug. 15 saying the city’s plan to demolish former Los Angeles police department (LAPD) headquarters is a waste of taxpayer funds, a report by the Los Angeles Times says. The city wants to tear down the Parker Center and replace it with a $700 million downtown office tower for city workers.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court is asking to halt the demolition and construction of the tower. It states the city’s plans “provide no public benefit,” the report says. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation wants to use the vacant Parker Center for homeless housing.

LA officials say the tower would be 27 to 19 stories and provide centralized office space to city workers based in other downtown buildings. The city would then sell its unused office buildings or end leases at sites it doesn’t own to save money.

According to the report, city officials say keeping the Parker building would be more expensive than demolishing it and building the tower. The city plans to start demolishing the building, built in 1955, this year and finish by December 2019.

The lawsuit cites a California statute that allows taxpayers to challenge public fund expenditures they consider wasteful, the report says. Section 526A of the California Code of Civil Procedure establishes the right to sue over “any illegal expenditure of, waste of or injury to the estate, funds or other property of a county, town, city or city and county of the state.”

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation also announced plans earlier this year to launch a ballot initiative seeking to convert the Parker Center into housing for homeless people, the report says.