Is Amoeba Music a landmark?

There’s a scene in the movie “L.A. Story” in which Steve Martin’s character, while showing a British journalist around Los Angeles, proudly boasts: “Some of these buildings are over 20 years old.”

The Amoeba Music store in Hollywood? It was built 18 years ago. That’s not even old by “L.A. Story” standards, and certainly not in comparison to other structures in the city that have been designated for preservation.

That hasn’t stopped the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its anti-development advocacy group, the Coalition to Preserve L.A., from filing a lawsuit to block construction of a 26-story tower on the Amoeba site on the spurious argument that the record store is a historic and cultural landmark.

In addition to the lawsuit, AHF filed a 1,123-page application package asking the city to officially designate the building a historic-cultural monument. The application argues for protected status because the building is covered in murals, neon and street art, and because the store is associated with a historic person — Sir Paul McCartney, who played a concert there in 2007 that resulted in not one, but two, albums.

But c’mon. The idea that Amoeba Music is a cultural or historic monument because an ex-Beatle played a concert there a decade ago is laughable. The landmark claim is a ruse to block the project and is part of AHF’s campaign to stop Hollywood’s shift into a denser, transit-oriented community.

The new lawsuit alleges that the city of L.A. erred by not requiring the developer to do a full environmental review. The city counters that the project qualified for a state-mandated exemption designed to ease the building of housing near transit if the project includes affordable units.

The project on the Amoeba site is about half a mile from a subway station, wouldn’t displace any renters and sets aside 5% of the 200 apartments for very-low-income tenants. The developer is also paying $2.5 million to help build and preserve affordable housing in the area.

There is a worthy fight underway over whether L.A. should require more affordable units in market-rate development projects. The state and city need to do a better job protecting renters from displacement as Hollywood gentrifies. And, yes, it’s fair to lament that the funky, artsy corners of Hollywood are slowly being replaced. But Los Angeles needs to build a lot more housing, and it makes sense to concentrate that housing in communities like Hollywood that have jobs, amenities and good transit.

By the way, this isn’t the sad tale of a beloved record shop being evicted by a greedy landlord. Amoeba Music’s owners sold the site to a developer in 2015 for $34 million. They’re planning to move to another location nearby. Who’s to say they won’t create another colorful music mecca down the street? And if this silly lawsuit gets stopped, 200 new neighbors could shop there.