The City Los Angeles must plan for over 500,000 new units of housing between the years of 2021-2029 as part of its current Housing Element, but the current “zoned capacity” is over 250,000 units short. To make up for this shortfall, the Department of City Planning introduced the Housing Element Rezoning Program, made up of multiple strategies to add more zoned capacity. Of these programs, none is arguably more impactful than the Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP) Ordinance.

The CHIP Ordinance lets developers who provide on-site affordable units build bigger, denser buildings. Due to overwhelming support to exclude single-family zones, the program is generally limited to commercial zones. This preserves single-family neighborhoods (including many designated HPOZs and National Register Districts), but also puts additional stress the limited areas where it now applies.

Many of the commercial corridors in Los Angeles will be eligible for the Opportunity Corridor Program, which allows heights of 5 to 7 stories. Most of the major streets in Los Angeles – think Fairfax, Melrose or Ventura – fall into this category. Areas flanking these corridors fall under the Corridor Transition Program, which allow heights of two to three stories and allows for “missing middle” typologies, but only in areas already zoned multifamily. CHIP also makes codifies elements of the existing TOC program, in a new Transit-Oriented Incentive Areas (TOIA) program.

The Conservancy believes that CHIP unjustly targets Los Angeles’ historic low-rise multifamily neighborhoods and legacy businesses for redevelopment. These neighborhoods have produced the majority of accessible and affordable housing (RSO and Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing) in LA and are being asked to produce more. If implemented as currently envisioned, we believe CHIP will directly lead to the redevelopment of and unnecessary loss of existing multifamily housing, increasing the displacement of longtime tenants and the potential de-stabilization of neighborhoods.

We continue to support Option 5, which removes R2 and RD zones from eligibility in the Opportunity Corridor Program. The memo notes that this change would remove approximately 1,900 parcels from the program, collectively containing thousands of Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) Units. Many of these parcels fall in existing Historic Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZs) including in Highland Park-Garvanza, Carthay Circle, and Angelino Heights, which are some of Los Angeles’s most historic neighborhoods.

We understand that an offset must occur due to the reduction in capacity, and suggest that Option 3 be considered. Option 3 modestly upzones single-family zones but only in the areas with greatest access to the transit. This refined option introduces new low-rise typologies at a 2- to 3-story scale, which we believe can be compatible with single family zones. The option transitions from larger, denser development closest to transit to a lower scale towards the interior of neighborhoods. We also note that no HPOZs seem to be affected in this option – though many will be affected by the Corridor Transition and Opportunity Corridor programs. We suggest that these two options, adopted in conjunction, will help to relieve pressure on historic resources and existing multifamily housing while locating new missing-middle housing in the most necessary areas.