REAL ESTATE NEWS

Los Angeles is turning to small, vacant lots in its latest effort to generate new housing.

According to UCLA's cityLAB research center, there are an estimated 24,000 empty lots, each measuring less than a quarter of an acre, in areas of L.A. currently zoned for housing.

The city, which owns about 1,000 of these spaces, is planning to sell 10 of them to developers in a pilot program that aims to demonstrate the feasibility of building smaller, lower-cost starter homes on these parcels.

L.A. is partnering with cityLAB and LA4LA, a public-private program, on an initiative called Small Lots, Big Impacts, which kicked off last week with a design competition inviting architects to craft plans for these vacant lots.

The goal of the competition is to encourage the use of innovative materials and construction methods to build fire-resistant structures while bringing down the overall construction cost of the units, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Architects are being asked for designs that envision multiple homes on one lot, but also provide prospective homeowners access to outdoors, natural light and “a comfortable relationship with neighbors.”

The winning designs eventually will serve as pre-approved city templates that developers can deploy to build housing on the vacant lots. According to the city housing department, eventual projects are likely to be between four and 20 units, with building heights ranging from one to three stories.

The city plans to use proceeds from the sale of the vacant lots to help fund down-payment assistance for home buyers who would purchase the new units built at these sites.

“Angelenos should be able to buy their first home and raise their families in our city. The launch of Small Lots, Big Impacts is a step toward that future,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

According to the state-mandated housing plan for Los Angeles, the city is required to identify sites where an additional 255,000 homes can be built.

Last month, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously gave its final approval to a rezoning plan that aims to increase housing development along commercial corridors. The plan, known as the Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP), allows developers to exceed current limits on building if they include a fixed percentage of affordable units in new developments and the property is near public transit.

Almost all of the new development envisioned by the CHIP plan is targeted for existing multifamily or commercial zones in Los Angeles. Single-family zones were largely excluded from the plan, except for property owned by a public agency or a faith-based organization.

Tenant groups have expressed concerns that focusing redevelopment in areas that already are dense with multifamily housing could lead to mass displacement as developers demolish older apartment buildings to replace them with new developments.

At the same meeting, it approved the CHIP plan, the council passed tenant protection rules that give low-income residents displaced by demolition the right to move into the new development at either their prior rent or a price deemed affordable to their income, whichever is lower.

These residents would typically receive expanded relocation assistance to help them afford rent in a market-rate unit during the 42 months it takes on average to build a new apartment building, according to the city.

Source: GlobeSt/ALM