Last fall, Councilmember Traci Park publicly promoted plans to bring a Baywatch television reboot to Venice, framing the production as a boost for local businesses, tourism, and union jobs. Then earlier this month, she traveled to the California Coastal Commission to support the permits needed to move the project forward. Those permits allow the production to use Parking Lot 731 near Venice Beach as private parking for film crews for several months, removing the lot from public use through much of the spring and summer.

Lot 731 is not just another parking lot. It is the planned site of the Venice Dell affordable housing project, a mixed-income development on publicly owned land that would provide hundreds of homes for low-income residents and formerly unhoused Angelenos while replacing parking on the site once construction is complete.

The timeline is difficult to ignore. Park pushed to bring the Baywatch production to Venice, then supported the permits allowing Lot 731 to be taken out of public use, while continuing to argue that housing there is unacceptable.

For years, Park has been one of the most consistent and forceful opponents of building housing there. During her campaign and throughout her time in office, she has argued that Lot 731 is too important to lose, describing it as essential for coastal access and public parking and at times proposing that it be treated as a transportation hub serving the beach.

Those arguments have shaped the city’s approach to Venice Dell. Even after the project secured approvals, financing, and a binding development agreement, Park pushed to reopen decisions, relocate the project, or delay construction. The City of Los Angeles has now spent more than a million dollars in public funds on litigation opposing the development, and state housing officials have warned that the city’s actions could amount to an effective denial of housing that complies with state law.

Park has continued to criticize the project publicly, including railing against it on the Council floor after the state issued formal warnings about delays, and proposing alternatives that housing advocates say would effectively restart years of environmental review and financing, putting the project at risk.

Against that backdrop, the Baywatch permits make Park’s longstanding arguments about Lot 731 ring hollow.

The same lot Park has argued cannot be disrupted for housing is now set to be taken out of public use for months at a time. The same site she has described as indispensable for coastal access will be reserved for private commercial use during peak beach season.

Supporters of Venice Dell note that the housing proposal would ultimately restore parking alongside hundreds of homes for low-income residents and formerly unhoused Angelenos, while the film production will remove the lot from public use entirely for months, increase congestion in the surrounding blocks as crews, equipment, and support vehicles move in and out, and leave behind no lasting community asset.