Los Angeles city planners held a virtual meeting Thursday night to gather public feedback on their plans for meeting ambitious housing production goals. Dozens of speakers repeated the same refrain throughout the evening: allow new apartments in single-family neighborhoods.
Listen: We recap last night’s LA rezoning hearing
The L.A. Planning Department has outlined a blueprint for achieving a state-mandated housing goal of nearly 457,000 new homes by 2029. Officials say the city can get there by essentially doubling down on development in already dense areas by offering incentives to builders.
Doing so would be critical under the current plan because it leaves out the 72% of residential land in L.A. zoned for single-family homes. That approach has pleased homeowner groups, but spurred criticism from renter advocates, homeless service providers and affordable housing developers.
Calls for a new approach
Thursday’s meeting was primarily focused on public input. Most speakers urged the city to reverse course and provide more opportunities to build up single-family neighborhoods.
One wealthy family can come in and build a mini-mansion that’s 4,000 square feet. But God forbid four families move into four 1,000 square foot places.
— Kiersten Stanley, Studio City
“We live in the second largest city in the country, with so much economic opportunity, and yet we are landlocking 75% of our residentially zoned land for exclusively wealthy people,” said Kiersten…
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