Los Angeles Officials Propose SB 79 Upzoning Alternatives

Los Angeles officials are sketching out a roadmap to fight one of Sacramento’s most aggressive housing mandates.

In November, the Los Angeles City Council directed the city’s Planning Department to craft a local alternative to Senate Bill 79, the transit-oriented development law signed last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, a new report laid out how the city could delay implementation of the upzoning measure on most eligible parcels, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

SB 79 is designed to boost density near rail stations and major bus stops. After reviewing more than 100 transit-oriented development zones, the Planning Department and its consultant Psomas concluded that Los Angeles could postpone the law’s effect on up to 88 percent of qualifying sites citywide until 2030.

Transit-oriented development zones are also eligible for delayed implementation if at least 33 percent of sites within a zone allow for half the density and floor area granted by SB 79, and the entire area around a transit station provides at least 75 percent of the capacity granted by the law. With those regulations, the only transit hubs within the City of Los Angeles that are ineligible for delayed implementation are concentrated in the San Fernando Valley and the Westside.

The Planning Department outlined three options that could effectively stall SB 79 across Los Angeles by proactively upzoning around 55 so-called “opportunity stations” in higher-opportunity census tracts. Each scenario would extend incentives to single-family neighborhoods, which was previously stripped from the Citywide Housing Incentive Program adopted last year to increase density around transit hubs.

Under the first option, the City Council could approve an extension of the Citywide Housing Incentive Program’s Corridor Transition incentives to single-family and other low-density zones near 55 stations located in portions of central and West Los Angeles, the south San Fernando Valley and parts of the Eastside.

The second option includes the expansion proposed in the first while also allowing the City Council to expand the Transit-Oriented Incentive Area benefits to sites near existing and operating rail lines, but not to sites near bus rapid transit stops or planned routes.

A third version would combine the first option with an expansion of Transit-Oriented Incentive Area incentives to all single-family and lower-density parcels near all opportunity station sites. It would be the most aggressive of the three paths presented by the Planning Department.

All three options would require City Council approval of amendments to the city’s code and housing incentive ordinance. Los Angeles, like other jurisdictions such as Beverly Hills, is working toward its state-mandated housing production goals while considering alternatives to SB 79 before the statewide law goes into effect this summer. Under its housing element, the City of Los Angeles must plan for 456,643 new housing units by 2029. — Chris Malone Méndez