Los Angeles City Council Votes on Limited Upzoning

After expressing opposition to SB 79 over the past year, Los Angeles officials have found a way to prevent the state’s upzoning law from going into effect in the city.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council voted to adopt a strategy that would delay the effects of SB 79 by selectively upzoning parts of town rather than allowing the bill to override all local zoning laws to permit taller, denser buildings near transit stops, the Los Angeles Times reported.

SB 79 includes some wiggle room for cities, including their ability to delay the upzoning until 2030 if they add density on their own terms. The L.A. City Council voted to upzone 55 single-family and low-density areas, largely concentrated in Central L.A., West L.A., the Eastside and the San Fernando Valley. The approved plans expand the Opportunity Corridor Transition Area, a provision in the Citywide Housing Incentive Program that incentivizes developers to build small, multifamily housing projects near transit.

Under the approved zoning, buildings between four and 16 units and up to four stories tall could be built in these single-family and low-density areas. In doing so, officials will add some density to these neighborhoods, but not as much as what SB 79 would call for. The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last year and going into effect July 1, allows developers to build up to nine-story structures adjacent to certain transit stops, seven stories for buildings within a quarter-mile and six stories for buildings within a half-mile.

“While we as a body opposed SB 79… the reason for it was legitimate. It’s to create more opportunities for housing construction and focus development in areas of high-quality transit,” Council Member Bob Blumenfield said, per the Times.

SB 79 drew criticism from officials like Mayor Karen Bass and City Council Member Traci Park.

“The rigid timelines and limited flexibility for alternative plans set forth in SB 79 create unnecessary burdens for Los Angeles communities,” Bass said. “While I support the legislation’s intent to accelerate housing development statewide, the bill as written diminishes neighborhood input on planning and zoning.”

Park said the bill “opens the floodgates to developers, displacement and gentrification” and allows multi-story residential buildings to rise “with no regard for impacts on traffic, infrastructure, the environment, evacuation routes, public safety, quality of life or community character.”

With the plan adopted and no opposition from Sacramento at the moment, it appears Los Angeles has staved off SB 79’s application until 2030. If the City Council hadn’t adopted a plan, the area surrounding 141 transit stops across L.A. would have immediately been upzoned when the bill goes into effect July 1. Still, a motion to increase upzoning in high-opportunity areas before the turn of the next decade will go before the Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

— Chris Malone Méndez