Los Angeles said five “illegal” Laurel Canyon homes will be demolished after decades of battle.

Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Hydee Feldstein Soto will be in five-part houses in the Laurel Canyon community under a plea agreement, the subject of two decades of legal struggle.

The unfinished three-storey, 5,000-square-foot single-family home is along N. Woodstock Road near Mulholland Drive along part of 21 planned developments that issued permits in 1998 and 1999.

The top five homes in the project are under construction, when the Los Angeles Planning Commission suspended a six-month moratorium on the project in 2002, awaiting an environmental impact assessment that real estate developers will draft.

According to news reports at the time, city prosecutors alleged in a 2021 statement that the impact assessment was not conducted, and the city ordered the demolition of the house in 2003.

In more than two decades after the city issued regular orders, a series of buyers dug out the property and tried to restart the project without first tearing down the existing structure, the statement said.

Neighbors claim construction of the home began again after developers Shahram and Ester Ghalili purchased the properties in 2020.

Mike Feuer, then-city lawyer, filed 35 criminal charges against the couple in 2021 after investigating the scene.

Feldstein Soto’s office said the owner pleaded guilty on August 7 to five counts of failing to comply with legal orders issued by the construction and security department.

“For years, the Laurel Canyon community has dealt with these dangerous, dilapidated houses that were ordered to be demolished more than two decades ago,” Feldstein Soto said. “We took action to end the issue once and for all.”

Owners will be required to demolish the home by August 7, 2026, or face probation, community service and a $25,000 fine.