LA Rezoning Could Displace Tenants From Apartments

A Los Angeles plan to rezone multifamily housing could put tenants in rent-controlled apartments on the curb.

A Citywide Housing Incentive Program ordinance to be heard by the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee on Tuesday would supercharge building incentives for developers while displacing tenants in older units, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The proposed legislation would give builders a break on height and parking if they include a certain percentage of affordable units and the property is near transit, a major street and jobs and schools.

Projects that are 100 percent affordable would be eligible for incentives across a wider part of the city.

The incentives would apply in single-family zones only if a property is owned by a public agency or a faith-based organization, which accounts for 1 percent of the city’s single-family lots, according to the Times.

Instead, most of the parcels that fall under the proposed development incentives are in residential neighborhoods zoned for apartments.

And this concerns a coalition of tenant and housing advocates, who want the city to change course to cut down on tenant displacement.

Older units make up most of the apartments in L.A. and fall under the city’s rent control ordinance, which limits annual rent increases and provides stability for tenants.

“[This] housing stock is the reason working-class Angelenos are able to stay in Los Angeles,” Laura Raymond, director of the ACT-LA coalition, told the Times. “It doesn’t make sense to have this huge cornerstone of our housing policy solution be at risk.”

The proposed zoning change comes as Los Angeles struggles to meet a state-mandated housing goal that it plan for 457,000 homes — nearly half of which would be affordable to low-income families — by 2029. Of that, 255,000 homes would be created via land rezoning.

While Los Angeles works to spur more homes to alleviate its affordability crisis, the city claims to be taking steps to increase protections for departing tenants.

Under a separate proposal to be heard by the PLUM Committee, low-income residents displaced by demolition would have the right to either move into the new apartment complex at their prior rent or at rent deemed affordable to their income, whichever is lower.

Those residents would also typically receive expanded relocation assistance to help them afford rent in a market-rate unit, according to the city, which estimates such payments to some tenants could surpass $100,000.

The planning department said it didn’t have an estimate of how many apartments might be knocked down because of its rezoning plan.

But it said the added tenant protections would add costs for developers and limit the number of demolished rentals.

— Dana Bartholomew