Housing Element Comments — a few days left to submit comments
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Hi All,
Just to keep you all informed. We continue to write letters and meet with city officials regarding the Housing Element and Draft #2. City officials are all aware of the maps we drew up together and the effort we are all showing to get the right density in the right places.
But our take away from these meetings is that people must write and send in their support for Draft #2. Our chance to protect our single family, RSO, Historic Districts, gets better every time they receive a comment.
So once again with time running out we hope you get your people sending in their comments. Abundant Housing is meeting with the same people we are. We just come to these meetings with a lot of community collaborative work and support while Abundant Housing comes with the ideology that social justice is not being served by protecting our existing neighborhoods.
So let’s send out our message again.
The message is: we support more housing and we support it on our commercial corridors. We have enough capacity to build all the housing we need by just staying on these commercial corridors which run through all our high resource communities. We can create housing for people in all our communities while protecting all the housing that already exists. We support Draft #2 of the CHIP program case file CPC-2023-7068-CA.
Also, thanks go out to Sheida from Century Glen who composed a wonderful door hanger that she distributed in her neighborhood with all the facts and links to letters we have sent you in the past. Our thanks also to all of you that continue to reach out to your councilmember, mayor, Planning and anyone that will listen. Our goal is to be fair and equitable to all that live in LA.
For this week let’s get our comments out to:housingelement@lacity.org case file CPC-2023-7068-CA.
Deadline is Monday, August 26. Next week we will start a new push.
Thank you all!!!Maria, Cindy, Jeff, Marc
AKE ACTION NOW: Deadline for comment is AUGUST 26
*** ACTION ALERT: SAVE R1 ZONING ***
Help save single family homes,
our neighborhood
and others like it across the city
Please take the 4 action steps outlined below to support the prohibition against blanket citywide upzoning of R1 single-family neighborhoods as part of the adoption of the new citywide Housing Element CHIP Ordinance.
Links are provided to our neighbors’ Century Glen HOA website with pre-prepared messages making it easy for you to take action. If using the links provided, please take a moment to add a personal line or two to personalize your message so that it does not appear to be a form letter.
ACT NOW as the comment period ends this week.
Input received by the City
will be used to craft the final document
You can click on each of these four requested actions (and can personalize them) or generate your own messages:
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1) Click on the link to answer two simple questions that appear on the Planning Department’s biased poll to gauge public opinion on the fate of single-family zoned neighborhoods.
Say NO need for more housing in single family zoned neighborhoods
Say NO to R1 upzoning.
Use the photo of correct answers provided below as your guide:
***********************
The poll says:
***********************
Make certain to sign off with your name and zip code. The planners will not count your response without your complete information.
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2) Write your own message (sample below) and/or do so using the linked message to the PLANNING DEPARTMENT to let them know you support the current June draft CHIP Ordinance that protects single family zoning.
Sample message to personalize
Address to send email: housingelement@lacity.org
RE: Case file CPC-2023-7068-CA: I support the CHIP Ordinance June 2024 draft
Dear Planning Department Housing Element Team,
I would like to express my support for the June draft of the Housing Element CHIP Ordinance released by the Planning Department that protects our single-family neighborhood and others from upzoning and increased density, and instead focuses development and the creation of additional housing units on nearby under-utilized commercial corridors and through adaptive re-use of underutilized buildings.
I support the rezoning of our commercial and identified industrial corridors while protecting single-family neighborhoods, Historic Districts, HPOZs and Rent Stabilized Units from being rezoned.
Any future consideration of residential area upzoning should be addressed as part of the community planning process, not via the Housing Element.
Thank you for your consideration..
Resident Name & Address or zip code
OR you may use the Century Glen HOA website links to send pre-prepared message for all of the letters needed. Click on the first “Email this letter” link to the template for a letter to the Planning Dept. and please remember to personalize
3) Send a message to Mayor Bass to ask her to protect our single family homes and neighborhoods and to support our position.
You can click on the “Email this letter” link under item 2 for a sample message.
Or, email your message directly to karen.bass@lacity.org
Subject: Housing Element CPC-2023-7068-CA Save R1 Housing
4) Send a message to Councilmember Yaroslavsky to let her know of the importance of retaining single-family zoning in our community and others to provide a full menu of housing options for current and future Angelenos. The message is very well expressed in detail in the sample message provided via the centuryglen.org link.
You can click on the “Email this letter” link under item 3 for a sample message to the Councilmember. Remember to personalize in some way.
Or, email your message directly to Councilmember.yaroslavsky@lacity.org
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Read on if you would like to have more
BACKGROUND INFO
The City Planning Dept. held a public hearing on July 25th regarding the Housing Element rezoning draft. We know many are concerned about what to say or do. The Housing Element is a huge complicated document that has exceptions for every rule and allowances/incentives for every circumstance. The recordings and slide presentations from the hearing held 7/25 are now posted at: https://planning.lacity.gov/odocument/4c1c45b9-da7e-4933-bce1-eb739f407a67/English_CHIP_HESMD_RPO-%20Public_Hearing_Presentation.pdf
See Daily News article and LAist article for post-hearing coverage.
THE REASON FOR THIS ACTION ALERT IS THAT AT THE JULY 25 HEARING THERE WAS AN ORGANIZED EFFORT BY PRO-DEVELOPMENT GROUPS WHO SPOKE AGAINST APPROVAL OF THE DRAFT IF SINGLE FAMILY AND HISTORIC DISTRICTS WERE EXEMPT FROM UPZONING.
They attacked homeowners – calling us racist and a privileged elite – declaring that protecting these neighborhoods is unjust. They ignored all the time we’ve spent finding areas along our commercial corridors where we could build more housing and develop rich, diverse neighborhoods and instead, were angry at the idea of homeownership and suggested only one solution – BUILD EVERYWHERE! BUILD ANYWHERE! Calling for an end to all single-family neighborhoods, Historic Districts and HPOZs.
As a result, the Planning Dept leadership has opened this draft ordinance up to more community input.
IT IS CRITICALLY IMPORTANT THAT YOU SUBMIT PUBLIC COMMENT TO SUPPORT THE CURRENT JUNE DRAFT OF THE HOUSING ELEMENT WITH ITS PROHIBITION AGAINST THE BLANKET UPZONING OF R1 PROPERTIES, THAT IT PROTECT HISTORIC DISTRICTS AND RSO PROPERTIES and that you help to SPREAD THE WORD. Each of us can generate our own tree of contacts that can grow and grow with subsequent sharing!
It is also important to note that the blanket upzoning of R1 neighborhoods will have a negative impact on ALL residents and property owners in a neighborhood — whether a condo owner or tenant, apartment owner or renter. The scattered unplanned development it would allow will impact needed infrastructure, traffic, parking issues, privacy, area tree canopy, the ability to benefit from solar power installations, and more.
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Those who attended the WSSM Annual Meeting will remember that we had a special presentation from the leaders of United Neighbors, Maria and Jeff Kalban, that provided a comprehensive overview of the Housing Element process and key issues.
Much work has gone into networking with our neighbors nearby and across the City to organize and formulate a set of shared objectives and to oppose proposed Citywide “upzoning” of single-family properties to permit multi-family projects on these lots. (And remember, that under State law single-family lots may now have both an ADU (granny or accessory dwelling unit) and a Junior ADU – up to three units on an R1 lot.)
Our United Neighbors communities approached the draft of the Housing Element with one goal in mind, to protect against the needless upzoning of our neighborhoods. To that end, United Neighbors and the affiliated HOAs and community groups worked for a year and a half to get overlays removed from our single family neighborhoods with a165 page document of maps to show how unnecessary adding density to our residential neighborhoods was when we had ample room on our commercial corridors. We managed to get those overlays removed. And more recently United Neighbors worked and succeeded to protect our neighborhoods from the Faith Based Incentive Program that would have allowed these organizations to build apartments in our neighborhoods “by right” on land purchased after January 2024 (counter to state law).
We achieved our goal and appreciated the Planning Department revising their original rezoning plan. While by and large we are satisfied with what has been accomplished, we still need the Faith Based Incentive Program to exempt Rent Stabilized housing areas (RSOs) and Historic Districts along with our single family zones. These areas have more truly affordable housing today than any new “affordable housing” development will ever provide. So we will continue to work to exempt them from the Faith Based Incentive Program.
Councilmember Yaroslavsky has stated she will protect Historic Districts from this program and several councilmembers support protections for RSOs. This should be something the city does without fail.
The pro-housing lobbying groups which include our City Controller, are livid that single family zones have been exempt. They don’t care that the need to upzone our neighborhoods doesn’t exist and that our commercial corridors can supply more than enough housing opportunities to meet the housing demands. They will fight to change this draft and that is why we need to speak up in support of it. We can work with this plan.
A strategy that allows for the blanket upzoning of large areas will allow developers to pick and choose where density is placed without regard to infrastructure or neighboring homes, apartments and/or condos, essentially empowering developers to become our City’s planners! If that R1 rezoning were to go forward, projects meeting the newly established density would be “by right” – meaning there would be no public review or appeals possible.
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Why do people want to do away
with R1 neighborhoods?
The campaign against R1 single family neighborhoods is fueled by much misinformation. Please help to stand up against the FALSE statements used to attack R1 neighborhoods, help to educate others and help spread the word:
1) True or False: 70% of land in Los Angeles cannot be developed for multi-family housing because it is zoned for single family homes.
False: By the city’s own data, of the 70% of R1 zoned land, much of it (over 1/3) cannot be developed for higher density uses due to high fire, high sea water rise or other geological or climate-related restrictions. Taking into account that 35% of R1 land cannot be developed with higher density, that means that only 45.5% of developable land in LA is zoned R1. However, even that R1 land is not limited to single family housing; it can be developed for up to 4-6 units of housing per lot (under State law SB 9 and ADU rules). The misleading message that nearly 3/4 of LA’s land is being kept from development due to R1 zoning is wrong.
2) True or False: Los Angeles needs to open up single family zones because it cannot meet state housing obligations without them.
False: By the Planning Department’s own data, LA has 3 times more zoning capacity than needed to meet the state mandate even without rezoning any residential neighborhoods.
3) True or False: Building more housing will bring down the cost of housing.
False: There is no economic basis for this claim. Private developers don’t overbuild housing in order to bring down the price of that housing. Reducing the value of their investment is not their business model. Getting affordable housing requires heavy subsidies and financial incentives to private developers. We will not lower the cost of existing housing by simply building more housing.
4) True or False: Affluent communities do not do their part in supporting new affordable housing.
False: The draft #2 of the Housing Element identifies commercial corridors that run through all the high resource areas of the city. (We are identified as a high resource or high opportunity area.) Every community can create new vibrant affordable neighborhoods on existing commercial properties. With the right incentives these are the areas where we can build new affordable housing without losing existing housing. WSSM, United Neighbors and its partners have always supported this approach.
5) True or False: Single-family neighborhoods perpetuate social injustice.
False: For decades, all communities have been open to every racial and ethnic group, by law. Economically disadvantaged groups can benefit from mixed income, affordable housing developments on existing commercial properties in high resource areas. We support this type of development and welcome more “for sale” units in our communities.
6) True or False: If “single family” zones are exempt from more density this will cause the loss of Rent stabilized (RSO) units.
False: By the city’s own data, we don’t need to increase the density in existing residential areas including rent stabilized units to meet the state housing mandate. There is plenty of zoning capacity in LA. to meet the need. We just have to focus on the right solution.
7) True or False: Historic Districts and HPOZs are elitist enclaves and should not be protected.
False: HPOZs and Historic Districts are less segregated and more racially diverse than other LA neighborhoods. They have greater population density, a wider range of income brackets, and a higher percentage of poor residents than citywide. They disproportionately support job growth, nearly two to one, and 69% of all units are multi-family. Allowing development in these areas would only supercharge destructive gentrification.
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If you have read to the bottom of this post, perhaps you have an interest and would like to explore getting more involved with tracking land use issues and related policy development! If so, contact wncluc@gmail.com SUBJECT: Land Use May be For Me.
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This email blast is a service of Westwood South of Santa Monica Blvd. Homeowners Association (WSSM), a non-profit organization incorporated in 1971. We represent single family and condominium homeowners in the area between Santa Monica and Pico Blvds. on the north and south, and from Beverly Glen through Sepulveda Blvds. on the east and west. We welcome and invite your participation, comments, feedback and suggestions.
Westwood South of Santa Monica Blvd. Homeowner’s Assoc.