4 L.A. councilmembers push to incentivize larger family housing
Four Los Angeles City Council members on Friday introduced a motion to incentivize developers to build more large family housing across the city.
With the motion, Council President Paul Krekorian, alongside council members Nithya Raman, Eunisses Hernandez and Katy Yaroslavsky are calling for an increase of rental units with three or more bedrooms for multi-generational families, and allow seniors who have adequate care to stay with their loved ones.
“Current zoning regulations inadvertently discourage the development of apartments with three or more bedrooms due to density and height restrictions, creating market conditions that have pushed developers to smaller single and one bedroom units,” according to the motion.
In the city of Los Angeles, a third of households have three or four bedrooms, but only 14% of the renter-occupied housing stock encompasses three or four bedroom units.
“Providing incentives in multi-family buildings for the inclusion of larger units will help balance the market conditions and alleviate the housing pressures on larger family units,” the motion continued.
If the full council approves the motion, the Department of City Planning will prepare an ordinance that would establish a new density bonus for large family units in multi-family buildings.
The motion outlined the council members' ideas for increasing multi-family housing projects, as the following:
— An exemption of the square footage of the third, fourth and fifth bedrooms, and third and fourth restrooms from the floor area calculation of large family units;
— Allow for an additional story of height beyond existing zoning restrictions and bonuses for developments consisting primarily of large family units, and the square footage of the additional story would be limited to the total exempt square feet in the project;
— A requirement for a 99-year covenant, an agreement, to ensure that units will maintain the same unit mix of large family units and be available to household at 120% of the Area Median Income; and
— This bonus would be additive to existing bonuses and Transit Oriented Communities provisions, which are benefits for development that are located within one-half mile radius of a major transit stop, such as bus or rail.
The council members will also look to incorporate these incentives into the city's Housing Element of the General Plan, which is currently being updated.