Could LA River Help LA Meet Its Housing Goals?

NEIGHBORHOODS LA-Mayor Garcetti's announced he wants to build 100,000 new housing units by 2021, and a new report out from the Los Angeles Business Council says that neighborhoods along the soon-to-be reinvigorated LA River could make a huge difference in reaching the Mayor's goal, the LA Times reports. 

These neighborhoods, long ignored by developers, are now seen as "fertile land with a lot of development potential," according to the UCLA professor who wrote the report; that change in perception can be used in LA's favor when it comes to building new housing quickly and funding more of the affordable kind. 

The report advocates creating special zones along the river where development is encouraged and simplifying the permitting process within those zones. The report notes that many projects along the river involve either rezoning of land or some kind of cleanup to remove environmental hazards, both of which can be time-consuming and cause costs to rise. To counteract this, a range of new policies are suggested, including "local design guidelines and expedited permitting"—all aimed at keeping costs low and building timely.  (Read the rest.) 

-cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 35

Pub: Apr 28, 2015

 

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