In this unfortunate case, the City Board of Appeals bowed to tenant activist pressure and denied a remodel permit for a two unit building that had not been upgraded or updated in more than 50 years, and needed it badly. The remodeling would have temporarily displaced a tenant activist, who did not want to leave, and he also argued that the new building would not be inexpensive to rent. The Court of Appeal affirmed the Board of Appeals based on a very deferential standard of review. The owner then invoked the Ellis Act and permanently evicted the elderly tenant activist who lost at trial and on appeal.
