Compton can't say no: developer uses Builder's Remedy to push 60 homes across from Centennial High

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Headline graphic: 60 homes the city can't block, over a file photo of Centennial High School in Compton

Cover photo: File photo (Centennial High School, 2006) by CentennialHighAlumni, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped, darkened and text added by The Southbound 105.

By Alberto Zamudio | The Southbound 105 | Oct. 11, 2026

COMPTON — A Gardena homebuilder wants to put 60 two-story houses on a 4.37-acre lot across the street from Centennial High School, and under a state housing law the city of Compton has very little power to stop it.

G3 Urban's "Compton 60" project, at 2320 N. Parmelee Ave., would include 48 market-rate homes and 12 affordable homes, according to a recently published environmental report first covered by Urbanize LA. The developer filed it under California's Builder's Remedy, a provision that kicks in when a city's housing plan has not been certified as complying with state law.

What would go up

The plans call for an all-electric gated community of single-family homes capped at 30 feet, designed by Architeyk, with one- to four-bedroom floor plans and private side and rear yards. Forty-eight homes would get two-car garages and 12 would get one-car garages, with 21 guest parking spaces, according to project documents summarized by Hoodline. A small shared open space would sit at the northeast corner, next to Compton Creek.

The project also includes new internal water, sewer and storm drain lines, three fire hydrants and street improvements along Parmelee. Pending approvals, construction is expected to take about 18 months, Urbanize LA reported.

Why the city can't simply reject it

The Builder's Remedy comes from the state Housing Accountability Act. When a city has not adopted a housing element that the state finds in "substantial compliance," a developer who sets aside enough affordable units can propose a project that ignores local zoning and general plan limits, and the city cannot deny it on those grounds. The Real Deal reported that because G3 Urban filed under that law, Compton is not allowed to reject the application as long as the required affordable units are included.

Compton is under pressure to build. The state requires the city to plan for 1,004 new housing units by 2029, including 487 affordable to lower- and moderate-income households, according to The Real Deal.

The city still has a role. Project filings list a conditional use permit, Tentative Tract Map No. 84563 and design review among the approvals needed, and Compton decided an environmental impact report is required. A public review period on the environmental documents was scheduled to run from Sept. 17 through Oct. 16, 2026, which means residents have until this Friday to weigh in.

Neighbors and the school

The site sits directly across from Centennial High, so traffic at drop-off and pickup, construction noise during school hours and pedestrian safety on Parmelee are likely to be the biggest questions at hearings. The gated design and on-site parking may ease some of that, but no traffic study findings have been published yet.

Part of a bigger fight

Builder's Remedy projects have mostly targeted affluent cities that were slow to update their housing plans. CalMatters has reported that housing advocates counted 93 such projects totaling about 17,000 potential units in 40 cities, with nearly half of those applications refused processing and several in court. Few, if any, had broken ground at the time of that report. Compton 60 is unusual because it is a modest, for-sale, single-family project in a working-class city, not a high-rise in a wealthy suburb.

G3 Urban has built for-sale housing in Gardena and is planning townhomes in El Monte and Pomona. It previously used the Builder's Remedy to upsize a proposed project in Artesia that has not moved forward.

How to weigh in

Comments on the environmental review go to the City of Compton Planning Division; reference the Compton 60 project at 2320 N. Parmelee Ave. The Southbound 105 will report back when the project goes before the planning commission.

Sources

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