According to the US Census, 63.4% of LA residents rent, rather than own, their home. Compare this to the national average which shows that 35.2% of all Americans rent.

Gatsby Investment, January 2024.

Single-family homes make up nearly 75% of all residential land in the city.

Los Angeles Times, September 2024.

In this time of housing crisis, we don’t believe it’s appropriate to remove all R1 parcels from the increasing housing density discussion.

Assuming R1 up-zoning policy is an all-or-nothing proposition is a clumsy evasion of social responsibility.

It closes down policy discussions aimed at finding more creative, incremental and less disruptive options for R1 up-zoning.

It is inherently unfair when 35% of the city’s population control up-zoning outcomes on 75% of the city’s land. Given the housing has to go somewhere (per targets from the State of California), forcing new housing density into 25% of the city’s land area simply repeats LA’s old patterns of social injustice.

Therefore, as part of our Westchester-playa CPU Draft 3 Map recommendations to Planning, we included these three incremental R1 up-zoning methodologies for consideration.  The goal: spreading very modest housing density on an equal basis, throughout the city.

The proposal: at Collector Street intersections, up-zone corner parcels only to 4L.

Here’s what that would look like in Westchester-Playa, where the original (1940s) development layout anticipated the need for certain boulevards to “work harder” for the community.

The results: in Westchester-Playa following this approach would generate a total of 1200+ new housing units. That is equivalent to 7 “Kinley West LA” 180-unit buildings.

How this works: identify Collector Streets, which were originally designed to take additional density.

Why corner parcels?  They are often larger (per sq ft) than mid-block lots.  This puts gentle density at the location most capable of handling a slightly larger building and the extra residential ingress/egress.