A decades-long legal battle over five partially built hilltop homes in the exclusive Laurel Canyon area could be nearing resolution with a plea deal announced Monday by the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.
According to City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, the city filed 25 misdemeanor counts in 2023 against Shahram and Ester Ghalili over the five unfinished, three-story, single-family homes. Last week, Shahram Ghalili pleaded no contest to five counts related to violations of the L.A. Municipal Code and failure to comply with orders issued by the Department of Building and Safety, Feldstein Soto said.
Ghalili was placed into a one-year diversion program, and Superior Court Judge Maria Lucie Amendariz ordered the demolition of the five homes by Aug. 7, 2026. Ghalili must also pay $5,000 in fines.
Failure to do so would result in a conviction on his record and he would be placed on 12 months of summary probation, ordered to serve 100 hours of community service, and pay $25,000 in fines and penalties.
“For far too many years, the Laurel Canyon community has dealt with these dangerous, dilapidated homes that were ordered to be taken down more than two decades ago,” Feldstein Soto said in a statement. “We took action to end this problem once and for all.”
Purchased in late 2020, the Ghalilis were the most recent in a long line of private developers and owners over the last two decades who tried to complete what had initially been a large development project. The city previously ordered the project to be shut down in 2002 and demolished in 2003.
After the Ghalilis took ownership, neighbors reported a re-start of construction activity at the homes. City officials ordered the new owners to comply with the demolition order and clear the properties.