By the summer of 2023, developers have built nearly 2,400 new apartments for low- and middle-income residents in the San Fernando Valley, with few such housing compared to most of Los Angeles.
The program does not require public subsidies, is unusual for low-income housing, and was proposed by Mayor Karen Bass’ signature initiative to promote affordability of Angelenos Price.
Eighteen months later, most projects were abandoned without a single broken ground. Until now, after the bruises battle in the town hall and courtroom, four developments (a total of one-third of the units originally proposed) have moved forward. This happened against the will of Bass and most of the city council.
These affordable housing projects are in trouble as they touch one of the third railroad tracks in Los Angeles politics. They proposed Otherwise, land reserved for single-family homes.
The development program has attracted dozens of angry homeowners to be upset about the destruction of traffic, parking and community characteristics. Opponents argue that developers seized a loophole in the mayor’s initiative to place apartments where they never intended. In the valley, other affordable housing projects that usually allow multifamily developments are moving forward without the same push.
“These realities [projects] It has a disproportionate impact. “This is not design. It is opportunism.”
But for those who support allowing the project to move forward, resistance calls to question the city’s commitment to address its affordable housing crisis.
“I think Los Angeles is a politician who encourages politicians to stop things, stop projects and stop growth here are cherished,” said City Councilman Nithya Raman, whose housing and homelessness are homeless. Committee Chairman Nithya Raman. . “I think we need to change that culture. We have to move to a city that says yes to housing to maintain the future of the city.”
Within a week after taking office in December 2022, Bass signed the order, Execute instruction 1100% affordable housing development projects to eliminate barriers to urban zoning hearings, appeals, environmental reviews and other licensing So they can be built faster. The program proved to be popular, with nearly 24,000 units approved for construction. Urban Planning Department.
The mayor’s orders are ignorant of the qualifications of single-family residential parcels. Some developers are sure they can execute instructions 1 with State laws aimed at speeding up housing construction and apply the rules to individual single-family residences in the valley. Ten such projects have submitted at least preliminary plans to the city, the largest of which is the 611-unit apartment complex in Woodland Hills near the Los Angeles River.
As the development plan is understood, the homeowner group begins to push back. In June 2023, Beth revised Executive Directive 1, saying that property division for single-family homes was not allowed, preventing the development of new projects.
This change has led to the fate of 10 projects that have been reading in the air for more than a year of intense political and legal struggles.
The dispute overlaps with other battles in Los Angeles, with the contents of affordable housing in single-family residential areas. Nearly three-quarters of the land in Los Angeles, Including the richest areasused in single-family homes. As State-mandated rezoning plansome social justice and housing organizations want the city to allow low-income housing to integrate these communities and alleviate displacement elsewhere. But homeowners’ organizations struggled hard with the proposal, believing that growing developments would overwhelm their neighbors, especially because state law has allowed attachment residential units on most packages. Bass and council support neighborhood groups.
The Urban Planning Department believes that once the order is changed, some valleys that meet the conditions in the mayor’s orders are executed before the course is revoked. The developers brought these decisions to the City Council. The state Department of Housing and Community Development urges project approval, noting Various letter Submitting the permit to the City Council is locked in the City Council.
The first project of the debate was the 200-unit proposal by Sherman Oaks in the Raman region. She believes that New York City should follow the state’s guidance and that development should continue to move forward. Her colleagues voted on her.
Less than three weeks later, the second project, 360 units of Winnekta appeared before the Council. Blumenfield, representing the area, argued that the bass command never allowed apartments to be allowed at single-family residential sites and therefore it should be rejected. His colleagues voted on him. Two subsequent projects, another in the Blumenfield area of Reseda, were rejected by Congressman Imelda Padilla in Sun Valley. The remaining six proposals, including one from Woodland Hills, were discarded.
Next is the lawsuit. Yimby Law, a statewide nonprofit that sues local governments that deny housing, filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of the three people who rejected the project. A community group Ethel Avenue Assorions Ass. Prosecuting the city to obtain approval.
Sonja Trauss, executive director of Yimby Law, said decisions on housing development should not be based on the wishes of individual council members but on the rules submitted by the City of New York.
“They violated their own laws,” Trass said.
In court, the city prosecutor believed that the bass amendment order only clarified the multifamily conglomerate program for single-family housing packages, so the rejection was appropriate. Three independent judges rejected the argument and asked the city to approve the projects.
In his December 2024 decision on the Reseda project, Justice Curtis Kin wrote: “There is no reason to believe that the substantial changes made by the revised ED 1 are secret and silently lurking in the original ED 1’s clarity. In language.”
This month, Sherman Oaks Case settled and developers agreed to lower the building’s height from 7 to 6 floors, placing it underground. Attorneys representing the community organization declined to comment, and Leon Benrimon, an official at the developer Bedrock Property Group, could not comment.
There is no cleanup work in the four projects in the middle of the partition now, although some projects have a larger surrounding environment than others. Single-family homes occupy the block planned for the block, with Sherman Oaks and the six-story Reseda projects planned for the block. The ruins of Sherman Oaks are located next to the school, with two boulevards nearby. The Reseda site is located on Four Lane Avenue. The seven-story Winnetka project will be more suitable with nearby developments, including the existing apartment building next door and a gas station around the corner.
In Sun Valley, developer and architect Jeff Zbikowski hopes to build 78 apartments in a three-story complex using Studio, one- and two-bedroom units. He said his proposal was sensitive to the community and noted that he provided more parking spaces than required by another apartment building neighboring the location.
Income limits for prospective tenants and size limits for household size by rent. A person earns no more than $77,600 and rents a studio for $1,942. A couple can pay $88,720 together and rent a one-bedroom apartment for $2,080.
“City and California’s housing shortages,” Zbikowski said. “There is this missing middle.” [of housing] It has been underserved for many years. ”
For some neighbors, the proposal remains an unwelcome invasion. Norma O. Chávez, chairman of the Sun Valley Regional Neighborhood Committee, said the city should retain a single-family residential area to get them out of the crowds and limit it to the makeup of the community.
“When it’s a single-family home, you know that neighbors and neighbors are proud of their community,” Chavez said. “It’s more maintained.”
Chavez continued to add apartments on the street, which means “there are still a lot of people, you don’t know where they come from.”
The Bass Office did not respond to the New York Times list of questions. exist Previous commentsThe mayor stressed that she supports affordable housing throughout the city and her executive order cleared the way for thousands of new homes.
