Los Angeles City Planning released a report on May 25 outlining strategies to create affordable housing more equitably throughout the city. The report to the City Council proposed the establishment of an equitable Housing Element rezoning program, the establishment of targeted housing numbers by community and strategies to ensure that equity is at the forefront of future land use considerations.

By addressing issues related to zoning capacity, the recommendations seek to ensure that planning complements citywide objectives for growth with equity, planning department officials said.

“Affordable housing has become an evermore critical lifeline for so many Angelenos,” Director of Planning Vince Bertoni said. “With housing costs on the rise, we must facilitate housing production across every one of our neighborhoods to address our present and future needs. By aligning our long-range policies, we can achieve fair, equitable and meaningful results.”

To ensure that every neighborhood in Los Angeles provides its fair share of affordable units, City Planning is updating the Housing Element’s policies and strategies for meeting housing goals, needs and targets. Laying the foundation for policy decisions on allocating land resources, the Housing Element can expand options for alternative models of housing. City Planning is proposing new rezoning strategies that will create additional housing capacity in high-opportunity areas with access to jobs and transit, while protecting tenants, vulnerable communities and environmentally sensitive areas.

The department is also proposing a change that will require every neighborhood in the city to do its part to address the housing crisis. The change would introduce targeted fair-share zoning allocations to guide future general plan updates and ensure that affordable housing is equitably distributed across the city. An explicit objective of the new plan is to reverse past land use policies that have contributed to racial segregation. The plan seeks to undo those policies by expanding housing opportunities in higher-resource areas and further prioritizing affordable housing.

For information, visit planning.lacity.org.