Argi | Los Angeles ADU

Co-founder & CEO at GatherADU.

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@shawngorham I feel you. My favorite is a bowl of rice with kimchi and avocado. Nothing else.

[John Otter @otter401]

An LADWP horror story. I know this developer and feel for what he's had to go through.

I've also noted in the past that we have a 176 unit mixed income apartment project on Sunset in Echo Park. DWP was supposed to have electrical power to our project in the Spring of 2024. Per an email from DWP that just arrived today power will be available in mid-Feb 2026. An 18 mos delay.

Meanwhile we're sitting on a finished apartment project that lacks power. Interest carry, re taxes, insurance, contractor general conditions, etc have added many many millions to cost of the project.

LA fooled us once, and shame on them. But they won't fool us twice. We, along with the rest of the development community and our institutional investors have redlined LA. Done with this city. It's broken beyond repair.

https://t.co/rry8hc9fTv

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@JMGregorchuk @shawngorham Best decision we ever made.

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@PatelBuilder No...

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

Has anyone successfully sold an ADU in CA using AB1033? Working with a homeowner in Los Angeles who wants to sell their detached ADU.

[John Gregorchuk @JMGregorchuk]

People often blame LADBS for slow permits in Los Angeles.

For whatever reason, LADBS has been neutered. There was a time where LADBS handled nearly 100% of the permit process with 1 plan checker. They had a clearance checklist and worked thru it with the applicant. Back then permits took days to get approved.

Today, every LADBS clearance check box has its own specialized process: its own plan check, its own submission requirements, its own plan checker, its own supervisor reviews, and its own fees.

Specialization is supposed to improve speed, but in this case the added layers of complexity lead to conflicting guidelines and review delays.

My street tree example has been making the rounds again. That street tree was ONE of THIRTY clearances for a mid-sized apartment building. I can only imagine the clearance process for a new housing tract with for-sale homes.

The state of California passed permit streamlining laws. Projects with 25 or fewer units need to be reviewed by the city within 30 days. 25+ is 60 days (CA GOV Sec 65913.3). CA also passed AB 253 to allow for 3rd party plan checks on projects with 10 or fewer units but it only applies if the agency takes longer than 30 business days to approve.

LA City council even passed 3rd party plan check for fire victims in the Palisades. The catch? It only applies to the LADBS intake process and none of the clearances. It's like saying you dont need mom to tie your shoe, but mom wont give you the shoe lace you need to tie the shoe.

LA is working the clock with their permit clearance processes to get out of these timelines.

Unfortunately, CA HCD has no mechanism to measure permit clearance timelines. When we complained about the delays, HCD went to LADBS and were told that we hadn't gotten back to them and the delay was our fault... we hadn't gotten back to them because the different plan checkers from the 30 clearances were ALL behind. Every single one of them and we had to get the clearances before going back to LADBS. Rival teams didnt want to even look at the plans until after other teams made their corrections. So a single file line of 30 different clearances was set up for us. Naturally, its impossible to get a permit in the timeline the state mandates. LA then hides behind each clearance to blame the applicant for the delays.

This is the biggest burden in the permit process that needs to be solved and I dont know how to distill it down into a story that is manageable. If you can think of a way, please help 🙏

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

We have done ADUs in 5 states, dozens of cities, and the only city where we turn down new projects is Oakland. It’s awful.

[Alex Weiss @AlTayWeiss]

9 months and counting.

Owner is still waiting on LADWP so he can get his C of O.

Absolutely ridiculous. We are ready to lease this up!

[Moses Kagan @moseskagan]

Not sure normies understand how disastrous this is for the developer, so let me explain:

At this stage in the process, all of the capital budgeted to build this apartment building has been drawn down and spent.

This means that, in addition to having pay carrying costs (property tax, insurance, security, etc.) for this empty building, the developer is *also* paying interest on *all* the money to build it.

Because the developer gets paid last (after the contractor, the construction lender and the equity investors), very likely this delay means this developer will make $0 for all his work building this thing.

Let me ask you two questions:

1. If you took an enormous financial risk personally, convinced a whole bunch of your closest contacts to go in with you, worked for 3-4 years, and then made $0, would you do this ever again?

and

2. If developers like this won't build again, how are we going to get the housing we need?

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@GDCAndrew @LA_Multi_Fam Love it 😀

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

Building an ADU in Santa Monica. Scheduled the first inspection. The city called me at 7:40 am to say that my inspection time is between 8 AM and 12 PM. Has anyone found a better way to do this? Called and emailed the assigned inspector hoping he will give me an approx arrival time. Have done inspections in 10+ jurisdictions, never heard of a 4hr window with a short notice.

[Shawn Gorham @shawngorham]

I want to share something deeply personal, I hope you will find the time to read this:

I have some friends I attended church with in the past. They left church and started leaning left/liberal on key social justice issues where Christians have a firm stance. They became very political posting non stop on current issues like George Floyd, abortion, LGBTQ, Trump, Charlie Kirk and all other hot button topics and current events.

I found myself filled with anger reading their posts.
"How can they believe that?"
"Are you serious?"
"You are the problem with the world today"

With every post more enraged but disciplined enough not to comment or engage.

Based on their posts, we have nothing in common anymore. Anger filled my heart towards past friends.

Then last week he called me for a Real Estate question/advice!

We laughed, he was funny, he asked about all my kids, told me about his. It was a life giving 45 minute phone call with an old friend who I deeply enjoyed in the past and again in that moment.

Moses has this line he said to me (many times now) "I think you two have more in common than you dont"

Social media is dividing us. I found myself thinking things about a friend I would never ever say to him in person. He is not my enemy. I believe he loves me very much and would do anything for me if I called him.

We dont have to agree on politics or hot topic devisive subjects, we dont. I can lean conservative, you can lean liberal and we can still have a good relationship even though we dont agree, we can, I promise.

If I only engaged with those whos beliefs lined up with mine, my life would not be as good as it is today, it wouldnt

We need to lower the tone. You can still be bold, you can still proclaim your beliefs, but you dont have to hate your neighbor to do it.

Social media is dividing us. We have to fight against it.

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@JMGregorchuk Oh really I didn’t realize but i have had something similar in another city. They mark status as corrections sent but files not available 😀 🧐

[Erik Yesayan | LA Land Use @ErikYesayan]

Excited to share a peek at the nearly completed adaptive reuse of the historic Glendale Maryland Hotel, featuring 51 newly renovated units. Lot of love went into this project. Ground floor restaurant and retail coming soon! Really enjoyed getting this project fully permitted.

[Paul Graham @paulg]

If you want to start a software startup, you should still learn to program. Even if AI writes most of your code, you'll still be in the position of an engineering manager, and to be a good engineering manager you have to be a programmer yourself.

[YIMBYLAND @YIMBYLAND]

Holy moly I misunderstood! It’s even better!
https://t.co/Hdc8xsKk5Y

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

New team record: Permit issued just 12 days after submitting ADU plans in Los Angeles! Yes, there was no LADWP clearance, otherwise add another 4 months 😆

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@JMGregorchuk $1,000 😀
(Let me know if the other bids are outrageous, one of our engineers can do it and stamp for a very reasonable price)

[Argi | Los Angeles ADU @iamargi]

@JMGregorchuk Right! Had a good experience with Burbank recently. Called a planner and they answered the phone within 2 seconds lol and met with a planner in person and they were knowledgeable and pragmatic about sb9/adu which was unexpected.