Faced with having their parking spots removed to make way for additional housing, a group of tenants in a 22-unit apartment building in Koreatown have launched a protest by occupying their own parking garage.
The owner of the apartment building on the corner of 5th Street and Kingsley Drive plans to remove several parking spaces used by long-time tenants and convert them into five accessory dwelling units. The conversion has the blessings of state and city government officials.
But that doesn’t appease the tenants who say a reserved parking spot in Koreatown is more than just a luxury — it’s a necessity.
“People can’t find spots here after dark… I know people who have family that will save spots for them,” said Koreatown resident Faith Jung. “If you can’t, you have to be ready for a ticket.”
Under Senate Bill 1211, which passed last year, local agencies are not required to replace parking spaces for tenants if the spaces are demolished by owners and property managers to make way for accessory dwelling units. ADUs are secondary, smaller homes that are designed to create more affordable housing in high-density areas, according to the California Department of Housing and Community Developments.
“Many of our multifamily properties had, whenever they were designed, additional space that they didn’t cover with housing that is underutilized,” former Sen. Nancy Skinner, who authored the bill, told the Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Community Development last year. “There is an opportunity to utilize that space with ADUs.”
Still, some residents of the Koreantown apartment building are protesting the proposed ADU construction, saying it will remove parking spaces that are vital, not underutilized.
A group of tenants at the building are showing their opposition to the plan with a sit-down protest at a long white plastic table with outdoor chairs occupying some parking spaces. They have been protesting for three weeks since they were informed by the building’s management company, North Oak Property Management, that their long-held spaces would be converted into five new dwelling units.
“Technically, we found the permits online before they ever announced anything,” said Megan Thomas Bradner, who has lived in the building for more than a decade. “They actually never officially notified us of the construction… All it said was, ‘you have no parking as of this day.’ ”
Construction was expected to begin Aug. 25 and conclude in June 2026 but the protests appears to have delayed that timetable.
Tenants at several apartments in Hollywood and Koreatown have also had their garages or storage units removed to make space for ADUs in recent weeks, according to NBC reports.
Both Hollywood and Koreatown are notorious for lack of parking and nighttime crime problems, which could create additional issues for both old and new tenants who are losing their designated parking spots, said Jung.
Because of nighttime safety concerns and an unpredictable freelance work schedule, Vanessa Lua, another resident of the Kingsley Drive building, said she specifically sought out a parking space when she decided to rent in the building.
“It was a little more expensive than the ones without parking, but I had to have a spot,” Lua said. “It’s on a lease, it’s in a contract… You always feel protected by the words.”
For older or disabled residents of Koreatown, the lack of parking could end up forcing them to leave, Jung said.
“There’s grandmas who can’t get around if their car isn’t near their door,” Jung said. “We do need more homes, but why do people have to lose their needs for new homes?”
Bradner and other neighbors had seen other parking spaces in the neighborhood turn into construction sites overnight, such as on Normandie Avenue, where a stop-work order had halted the conversion of a garage into an ADU, making the parking space virtually useless, she said.
The building owner, Mark Nassab, told The Times that the project has been in full compliance with city and state law since its inception. He said that while he acknowledged the frustrations of his tenants, the need for additional housing in the city justified the parking space conversions.
“We’re in compliance, doing everything that the law allows us to do, and we’re allowed to do this by law,” Nassab said. “I know the tenants, they may think it might be inconvenient for them, but in condensed areas, the city allows it and they need it, they encourage it.”
The group of tenants sent letters to the Los Angeles City Planning Department and other agencies, contacted Los Angeles City Councilmember Heather Hutt and sent appeals wherever they could be directed — all to no avail, said Laureen Seeley, another decade-long resident of the building.
Hutt told The Times in a written statement that she does not support the legislation that allowed for these changes without local input.
“The conversion of parking spaces into ADUs, like the project at 501 S. Kingsley, demonstrates a key problem: decisions are being made in Sacramento without local input,” Hutt said. “Local governments are better equipped and designed to work directly with the community.”
The tenants also reached out to the LA Tenants Union, an organization that advocates for tenant rights and affordable housing.
“It’s up to us [tenants] to enforce, which is why we have this tenants association to fight against harassment, to fight against illegal construction, to fight against code violations, to fight for our habitability and to fight against the illegal change in terms of our lease agreement,” Seeley said.
A spokesperson for the North Oak Property Management company demonstrated that the company had building permits that were approved in April by the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, an offer for a monthly $200 credit for each parking spot lost and a “Tenant Habitability Plan” approved in June.
The habitability plan the tenants received, however appeared to be blank. Tenants also said that the $200 credit would not result in a long-term contractual rent reduction, leaving them subject to steeper rent increases in the future.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Housing Department said the agency has received three harassment complaints against the landlord at the apartment building address and has required a Tenant Habitability Plan to lessen the impact of construction before it begins.
“Ownership may legally convert the parking spaces to ADUs,” the LAHD spokesperson said. “But if the parking spaces were part of the lease agreement that the tenants have, that equals a reduction of services and, as a result, the tenants will have a reduction in rent.”
Nassab said that while the situation may be “frustrating” for tenants, he believes the decision to convert the spaces will lead to improvements in the housing shortage.
“We’re trying to help the city of L.A. combat shortages of housing, and we’re following the law, and I wish tenants would do the same,” Nassab said. “It’s going to provide more housing.… That’s the state, that’s why they passed the law.”
The group of tenants has demanded compensation in rent credit for diminished utilities during construction of the ADUs, legal compliance, accommodations for water, power and internet service interruptions and additional guarantees of safety to conclude their protest. Some tenants have considered leaving if the change goes through at all.
“Ultimately, the way the law is right now, we’re kind of just kicking the can down the road a little bit,” said Mel Raymond, a tenant in the building. “What blew my mind was that my lease is apparently just a sheet of paper, it doesn’t do anything … I thought my lease was something that protected me.”
Tom Skiles, a 30-year resident who periodically drives his wife to the hospital, said that while he understands the plight of the homeless, it is an inopportune time to lose a guaranteed amenity.
“Look, man, I want more affordable housing for people, we all do … but this is just landlords trying to make money,” Skiles said. “This isn’t a time for major change in my life.”
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