The City of Los Angeles received final approval Friday, the plan aims to promote housing development in commercial corridors and existing dense residential areas.
In a 14-to-0 vote, council members approved the so-called citywide housing incentive plan.
The new regulations will provide developers with incentives to establish market prices and affordable units. It represents Los Angeles’ main strategy to achieve the national housing goal that requires the city to find land that can build 255,000 homes.
Friday’s unanimous vote was on the city’s face next week’s state deadline to develop housing plans and limit a year-long process that is tangled with issues related to stocks, transportation and urban layout.
Under a citywide housing incentive program commonly known as the chips ordinance, the developer will be able to exceed the current building restrictions if the developer includes a percentage of affordable units in their new development and the property is near public transportation.
100% affordable projects will qualify for incentives across the city.
In both cases, developers usually use incentives only when they are in an existing multifamily community or business area.
Unless the property is owned by a public agency or a faith-based organization, the single-family district will be largely unaffected, which accounts for only a small percentage of single-family homes in the city.
The planning department initially explored more buildings in single-family neighborhoods that were supported by tenants and stock groups who wanted low-income housing in these areas to combat the legacy of segregation.
However, the department abandoned pushback programs regarding changes in its community, including changes in traffic and noise, following the pushback of homeowners’ groups. In December, the city council rejected a late effort to transfer courses, although some council members expressed interest in opening single-family communities to limited new developments in the future.
Tenant groups say that as developers demolish existing apartments to build newer, larger buildings, focus on areas that already allow multifamily housing to rebuild could lead to massive displacement.
Planning Department said it attempts to address issues concerning equity and displacement in several ways.
If the developer’s batch is commercially and in a work and good school near a multifamily community, then greater incentives can be made.
The separate tenant protection rules passed Friday displaced low-income residents due to demolition rights, whichever is lower.
According to the city, these residents usually receive expanded relocation aid to help them cover 42 months of market rate unit rental, the average time it takes to build a new apartment building.
