Fight intensifies over development at Flat Top in Lincoln Heights

LINCOLN HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- From the top of Flat Top, visitors can see the downtown Los Angeles skyline, the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign. But the sweeping views are not from the Hollywood Hills - they come from Lincoln Heights, one of Los Angeles’ oldest neighborhoods, and the center of a growing fight over development.

“This part of Flat Top is a cultural landmark for a lot of Chicano and East L.A. and Northeast L.A. residents,” said Diego Zapata, organizer and president of Grow Lincoln Heights.

The location is the backdrop of the 1993 cult classic “Blood In Blood Out.” Today, however, the area is the focus of renewed concern as residents and activists push back against new construction proposals they say threaten the land.

Zapata said development has steadily encroached on the site.

“We see these developments encroaching every year onto Flat Top and the footprint of Flat Top kept shrinking and shrinking,” he said.

Flat Top encompasses more than 100 acres of mostly privately owned land across several Northeast Los Angeles neighborhoods. The most recent flashpoint is on Prewett Street, where a proposed two-story, roughly 4,000-square-foot home and ADU are planned.

“This is the single domino that can have a cascading effect for the rest of Flat Top here,” Zapata said.

Zapata, who was born in East Los Angeles and raised in Lincoln Heights, said the area holds deep environmental and personal significance.

“There are over 200 endemic plant species here at Flat Top,” he said.

For Zapata and other advocates, Flat Top is more than open space.

“I wouldn't be a scientist or a biologist or a land steward or even an organizer if it wasn't for my relationship to Flat Top,” he said.

The Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council has led the chorus of opposition against development in the area, including the Prewett project. Zapata and the council’s current president are co-founders of Grow Lincoln Heights, a nonprofit that has led grassroots campaigns against similar proposals.

“Developing Flat Top would directly harm people who have traditionally had access to that, but also it has this other dimension of gentrifying our community,” Zapata said.

In 2023, a Los Angeles city associate zoning administrator denied the application for the Prewett project, citing public safety concerns such as a lack of emergency access, along with environmental and cultural protections. The property was transferred to new owners in 2024.

City officials said the Prewett project application remains in process and is currently under appeal. Eyewitness News spoke with a property owner, who declined to comment.

Flat Top Hill is considered a sacred site under state law. According to the city, a tribal consultation process is ongoing, with multiple tribes seeking to participate.

“I would take my children here and my family and we would do ceremony. We will honor the sun, honor the earth,” said Hector Pérez-Pacheco of the Quechua Confederation of Tahuantinsuyu.

Kimberly Morales Johnson, tribal secretary for the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians Gabrieleno/Tongva, said dialogue remains a goal.

“We're hoping that we can all come to the table and discuss our concerns and maybe come to some type of collaborative agreement,” Johnson said.

As of the most recent update, the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians Gabrieleno-Tongva said it is still waiting to be contacted for the consultation.

The nonprofit North East Trees is part of a proposed solution. The organization owns and stewards part of the land that makes up what is now Flat Top Park and has expressed interest in purchasing the Prewett property and partnering with the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians to manage it. The effort, however, would require funding.

Several organizations have sought support from Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who described the effort as a priority and an opportunity for a public-private partnership.

“Then my team can be leveraged to redo the zoning on the land for open space,” Hernandez said.

Advocacy groups have begun launching fundraisers to support the effort.

“We're doing some crowdfunding to help bridge that gap potentially, but it's also part of a long-term campaign to actually purchase the other remaining parcels of Flat Top,” Zapata said.

Zapata said he hopes younger residents from East and Northeast Los Angeles will visit the overlook before it changes forever.

“Come up here before we lose it," he said. "Because it really truly is such a special place. And I want everyone to have an opportunity to know it, like I have."