Los Angeles, which has a severe housing shortage, also has thousands of city-owned properties.
Hoping to potentially spur development, L.A. Controller Ron Galperin has released “Property Panel,” an online, interactive map of properties in the city. The list includes those owned by various public entities, including the City of Los Angeles, the county, the state and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
Galperin’s office said the total came out to 14,000 properties totaling nearly 60,000 acres. The site can be viewed at lacontroller.org.
The city owns just over half of the total properties — 7,500 — but has struggled to efficiently identify and develop those locations. The issue has received more attention amid a mounting housing crisis as officials search for public properties suitable for affordable housing and temporary homeless shelters.
In a statement Wednesday that accompanied the release of the map, Galperin called the properties “underutilized and vacant.” They have, he added, the potential to be “affordable, workforce, and senior housing, or economic and business development projects.”
The searchable site, he said, “get governments to think more strategically” about the existing properties.