The Times: LA Has a Program to Build Affordable Housing Near Transit. Of Course, NIMBYs Want to Shut It Down

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING-California desperately needs to build more homes to ease its housing shortage, yet residential construction remains sluggish across the state. One exception is Los Angeles, the rare city that is having a building boom.

Thousands of new apartments are in the development pipeline in L.A., all because of a program approved by voters in 2016 that makes it easier to build taller, denser buildings near rail stations and major bus stops if the projects include affordable housing.

The Transit-Oriented Communities incentive has been wildly successful, with nearly 20,000 units proposed in the two years since it was created. About 20% of those would be set aside for low-income tenants, providing thousands of units of affordable housing without taxpayer funding.

So, of course, a slow-growth group is now suing to stop the program.

Last week, Fix the City filed a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles to block one specific TOC project near Century City and to overturn the entire program on the grounds that it violates city and state laws. This is par for the course for the group, which has repeatedly sued to block projects and plans designed to shift L.A. from car-centric suburbs to denser, more multi-modal neighborhoods near transit.  (Read the rest.)  

-cw

: