Senate Bill 79 (SB 79), authored by Senator Scott Wiener, will upend zoning across LA County. Buildings of up to 7 stories will be allowed near subway stations, and of up to 6 stories near light rail, Metrolink or BRT stops.

The Bill has been passed by the Senate, but has been amended significantly through the process. It has been referred to the Assembly with additional amendments. It’s set for a full Assembly vote for the week of September 8.

Despite best efforts to improve this bill with a series of amendments that will protect and plan for California’s historic places, Senator Scott Wiener has rejected these and the window for considering amendments is quickly closing.

Rather, they have added amendments that purport to address our issues. They do not and actually make the problems worse. This includes introducing a 10% cap and allowance on historic resources within any transit-oriented development zone. While this language is ambiguous, this means cities would have to determine which 10% of affected historic resources will be protected while the rest will be sacrificed.

Senate Bill 79 creates two tiers of “transit-oriented development stops” in the state and applies different heights and densities accordingly. The two tiers and how they will affect Los Angeles County are as follow:

Tier 1 – Only applies to the “heavy rail” B and D lines, serving Downtown, Hollywood, North Hollywood, Koreatown and Mid-Wilshire. The bill upzones these areas to the following heights and densities:

• Within 1/4 mile – 75 feet, 120 units per acre, F.A.R. of 3.5
• Within 1/2 mile – 65 feet, 100 units per acre, F.A.R. of 3.0

Tier 2 – Applies to the many “light rail” lines including the A, C, E, K, and the future East San Fernando Valley line, BRT lines such as the G, J, Silver Streak, and the future North Hollywood to Pasadena line, and Metrolink stations with over 48 trains per day (only Glendale, Downtown Burbank and Union Station currently meet this requirement). The bill upzones these areas to the following heights and densities:

• Within 1/4 mile – 65 feet, 100 units per acre, F.A.R. of 3.0
• Within 1/2 mile – 55 feet, 80 units per acre, F.A.R. of 2.5

SB 79 is bad for preservation.

Historic buildings, neighborhoods, and districts would be stripped of protection, thereby fast-tracking demolitions of places important to our history and heritage. Most SB 79 projects would be approved without city or community input. This would open the door to speculative, harmful development. L.A.’s historic places would have few remaining safeguards.

SB 79 is weak on housing.

The bill provides only weak, minimal standards for the creation of new affordable housing and likely will accelerate the displacement of more existing residents. Cities in California are already required to plan for and provide zoning capacity for projected housing through state-mandated Housing Elements, something L.A. has already done through the Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP), adopted by the City in February. SB 79 ignores this work and the thoughtful input of our communities.

SB 79 undermines good planning.

This bill is anti-planning, removing local planning tools critical to meeting housing goals responsibly. Instead SB 79 is a top-down, one-size-fits-all policy that overrides local planning statewide, undermining local context and the input and considerations of residents, communities, and local governments. It is part of the reason why the City of Los Angeles has formally opposed SB 79.

We support more housing. SB 79 is not the way to do it.

Housing and preservation are not at odds or mutually exclusive, and we can and are currently doing both, but we strongly oppose this bill as it will cause irreparable harm to communities throughout L.A. County and California. Rather than a blunt hammer that has little consideration for planning, we need thoughtful community-driven tools to guide our growth.