How long will L.A. shield its single-family-home neighborhoods from rezoning?

A parcel of vacant land surrounded by single-family homes.

By Ryan FonsecaStaff Writer

Sept. 27, 2024 6:30 AM PT

Good morning. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

L.A. needs to build affordable housing. Why is nearly three-quarters of the city off-limits?
The Dodgers captured their 11th NL West crown in 12 seasons.
10 of the best pumpkin spice lattes and seasonal drinks to sip this fall.
And here’s today’s e-newspaper.

The latest salvo in L.A.’s residential rezoning war

You can’t have an honest conversation about California’s housing crisis without talking about zoning — through which cities designate how their land is used and what can be built where.

And when it comes to residential zoning, low-density housing dominates the market in the Golden State.

Researchers from UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute crunched the numbers and found nearly 96% of all the land zoned for residential use in California is reserved for single-family homes.

With those zoning choices, researchers argue, many cities are “effectively barring denser housing options … and creating an obstacle to racial and economic equality in the state.”

In the effort to dramatically increase housing stocks and decrease housing costs, state regulators are requiring cities to plan for more affordable housing construction, which often requires rezoning.

In dense, sprawling Los Angeles, officials face a state mandate to plan for 250,000 more housing units.

After years of study, the city planning commissioners had to make a big decision this week: Where should all those new homes go?

As Times housing reporter Liam Dillon wrote ahead of the vote in his new subscriber exclusive, L.A. planning officials proposed to meet the state requirement by making high-density neighborhoods even denser while leaving low-density, single-family-home communities virtually off-limits.

Aerial view of a sprawling residential area with skyscrapers on the horizon.

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

“At stake is no less than a vision for Los Angeles’ future,” Liam wrote. “Will L.A. continue to preserve communities dominated by single-family homes? Or will the city make a historic shift to allow for more affordable housing in areas that have long excluded it?”

After hours of public comment and debate, commissioners opted for the status quo. But L.A.’s housing future is not settled yet.

The seven-member panel approved planning staff’s recommendation to exclude single-family-home areas from having to build more housing. But they also expressed that the City Council should consider other options laid out in the planning department’s proposed housing plan, which includes rezoning some single-family-home neighborhoods in Mid-City, the Westside and the San Fernando Valley to allow for multifamily housing projects.

City Council members will have to approve some version of the plan before the state’s deadline in February.

L.A.’s zoning war rages on

Nearly two-thirds of Angelenos rent their homes, according to U.S. census data.

It probably won’t come as a surprise that residents who enjoy their lower-density way of life typically don’t want to see that change.

Many homeowners groups oppose increasing housing in their single-family-home communities, arguing the city can achieve its goals by boosting housing along commercial corridors and in places already zoned for apartments.

Affordable housing advocates contend keeping the status quo will only serve to worsen the quality of life, health and economic mobility of the city’s renting majority.

“The argument is that the majority of the residents need to accept a greater disruption to their lives so the minority of residents, who are disproportionately wealthier and whiter, can continue to keep their neighborhood as it is,” Mahdi Manji, director of public policy at the Inner City Law Center, told Liam.

State leaders’ efforts to boost housing are being met with fierce opposition by some cities, including Huntington Beach, Beverly Hills and Coronado.

As the zoning debate raged locally, city officials tried to bury a publicly funded long-awaited study highlighting the harmful legacy of racist housing policies in L.A. and beyond. The report explores restrictive housing covenants, redlining and other city-sanctioned segregation, the effects of which still persist today.

Researchers found that the city’s approach to planning housing “too often prioritized the concerns of the White middle class over the marginalized, denying communities of color access to resources and excluding them from wealth-building opportunities,” the report states.

The 124-page report from the firm Architectural Resources Group and academics affiliated with UCLA and USC was initially commissioned in 2021 and released only last week after The Times argued the city was breaking the law by withholding it.

“The report noted that more than 80% of L.A.’s land area with the highest-performing schools, most public amenities and best access to jobs is zoned only for single-family homes,” Liam explained this week. “In a smaller slice that captures the wealthiest neighborhoods that are majority white, 95% of residentially zoned land is exclusively for single-family homes.”

The analysis from UC Berkeley also notes the exclusionary effects of zoning decisions.

“Jurisdictions with more restrictive zoning have fewer non-white residents,” researchers wrote. “Although California is only 35 percent white, cities above 96 percent single-family-only zoning are nearly 55 percent white.”

Curious what residential zoning looks like in your community? You can explore L.A.’s zoning map here. And for other Californians, UC Berkeley’s report includes maps for the dozens of cities in Greater L.A. and hundreds more across the state, with single-family-zoned areas noted in pink (there’s a lot of it).

Today’s top stories

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One Wilshire is the mother of all data centers in the West. If you could get inside — and you can’t — the building’s internet connection would give you a split second jump over others when tickets for the World Series or a concert went on sale.

The Dodgers captured their 11th NL West crown in 12 seasons

The Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 7-2 to clinch another NL West title, but Freddie Freeman rolled his ankle in another potential cause for concern.
A new bat, sweat and grit helped Dodger Mookie Betts snap a slump at the perfect time.
The division title is another triumph for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, columnist Bill Plaschke writes.

Orange County braces for potential flood of litigation from Airport fire victims

Orange County has retained a law firm as attorneys begin a coordinated effort to file potentially hundreds of claims from victims of the Airport fire.
One attorney told The Times that the county could be held financially liable for damaged property, lost personal items, relocation expenses and emotional distress.

A film gala in San Francisco screened movies made with artificial intelligence

The Project Odyssey AI Film Gala — part movie premiere, part tech startup conference — aimed to showcase innovations in filmmaking using AI models.
The gala comes as some Hollywood creatives have labeled AI as a villain that will eliminate jobs and dramatically threaten their livelihoods. Those concerns came to a head in last year’s dual Hollywood strikes led by writers and actors.

What else is going on

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The buyer of Kanye West’s Malibu mansion stripped down plans to restore the home to its original design.
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Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.

Commentary and opinions

A lot of California Democrats loathed Gov. Ronald Reagan. Here’s why they’re misguided, writes Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Washington Post columnist.
Desperate for good news about climate change? Consider the pace of clean energy growth, writes J. Doyne Farmer, author and director of the complexity economics program at the Institute for New Economic Thinking at Oxford University’s Oxford Martin School.
Here’s a look at the lives of second-chance dogs, as told by attorney and photographer Katherine Carver.

This morning’s must reads

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With an election looming, the U.S. is approving citizenship applications at the fastest speed in years. Many immigrants want to get citizenship in time to vote in the upcoming election. The Biden administration says the uptick in new citizens is due to efforts to reduce a backlog of applications that mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other great reads

One nation’s plan for success? Work less and make more babies.

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].

For your downtime

A cupcake on a plate, next to a latte in a white mug topped with a cinnamon stencil of a pumpkin.

Going out

🍁 Here are 10 of the best pumpkin spice lattes and seasonal drinks to sip this fall.
🌳 Here’s where you can get free trees in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
📷 Kate Winslet brings WWII photojournalist Lee Miller to hardened, complex life in the biopic “Lee.”
🤖 “The Wild Robot” uses machines and animals to tell a human story.
💑 “Nobody Wants This”? More like nobody wants you to root for love more, our critic writes.

Staying in

🌿 Growing your first outdoor pot plant? Here are four things you need to do next.
📺 Ryan Murphy believes he “did right” by Lyle and Erik Menendez in “Monsters.”
🔮 “Agatha All Along” requires minimal Marvel homework, but these backstories help explain more.
🍔 Here’s a recipe for Burgette’s salmon belly smashburgers.
✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games.

And finally ... a great photo

Show us your favorite place in California! Send us photos you have taken of spots in California that are special — natural or human-made — and tell us why they’re important to you.

Many umbrellas stand on a beach, with a few opened.

Today’s great photo is from staff photographer Brian van der Brug, who recently helped cover a battle over who can access beaches along the bucolic Russian River. Many of the beaches are public, according to state and federal law. But people who have purchased riverfront property don’t always see it that way.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Defne Karabatur, fellow
Andrew Campa, Sunday reporter
Hunter Clauss, multiplatform editor
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Stephanie Chavez, deputy metro editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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