Los Angeles is ahead of schedule on Mayor Eric Garcetti’s goal of building 100,000 units of housing by 2021, the city’s planning director said.
Vince Bertoni, the planning director, told councilmembers on Tuesday that the Department of City Planning has already approved projects totaling 106,000 units, according to Curbed. Garcetti set the goal in 2014, his second year in office.
Some of those projects could still change or fall through, but the Department of Buildings and Safety has already issued permits for 83,000 units. That’s the final step in the planning process that allows developers to break ground.
Bertoni, who Garcetti appointed in 2016, said the city could hit the goal by next year.
Garcetti’s housing goal was meant to promote development that would address the city’s housing shortage, which has pushed pricing up to all-time highs, although the goal doesn’t differentiate between units considered affordable and market-rate units. Many economists argue that more residential development, regardless of pricing, will help lower rents and sales pricing by increasing overall supply.
The city has tried to incentivize development with other programs too, including the popular Transit-Oriented Communities program that provides density bonuses to developers for building affordable units.
It’s also stepped up its efforts to address homelessness in city limits by developing emergency shelters on city-owned properties. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County passed a six-month rent freeze earlier this month.
Californians will decide in November on what could be the most significant measure to impact the housing market in decades — Proposition 10. The measure would allow local governments to enact rent control for the first time since the mid-1990s. Opponents say it will curb development, while proponents say its necessary to preserve affordable housing across the state. [Curbed] – Dennis Lynch