The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved sweeping changes in zoning rules that allow larger and more dense developments downtown in the city's biggest effort yet to embrace urban-style planning principles.
The zoning changes are similar to those in more urbanized city centers like those of New York and Chicago. But critics have pointed out that L.A. doesn't have the vast mass transit system that each of those cities has, saying the tighter zoning could result in more traffic congestion.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, September 20, 2007 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 80 words Type of Material: Correction
Public transit: An article in Section A on Aug. 8 said a study by the Southern California Assn. of Governments showed that downtown Los Angeles residents use public transit for less than 10% of their work, shopping and other trips. Although a SCAG official provided the information to The Times, the figures came from studies by the downtown Business Improvement District, which showed a range of 9% to 11% of transit usage by downtown residents over the last two years.
The new rules encourage developers to build high-rises without leaving space between the buildings, allow them to reduce the size of lobbies and other communal areas, let them build closer to sidewalks and make it legal to build extremely small units.
Developers who reserve 15% of their units for low-income residents are now exempt from some open-space requirements and can make their buildings 35% larger than current zoning codes allow.
The vote is a victory for Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others who have argued that Los Angeles needs significantly denser zoning to keep up with the rapidly rising demand for housing.
The city is in the midst of a building boom that has seen high-density housing projects rise in downtown as well as Century City, Mid-Wilshire, the Westside and pockets of the San Fernando Valley. But these projects have also sparked a backlash from some residents, who say the new housing is worsening traffic and eroding the low-rise, suburban quality that has defined much of Los Angeles for decades.
Downtown business interests and others said they hoped the ordinance would help sustain the residential boom that has helped transform downtown in the last five years, and at the same time would bring more affordable housing to an area that has seen the construction of mostly luxury units.
The new rules could also push the boom farther south, because they extend the zoning past the traditional boundaries of downtown all the way to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, south of the 10 Freeway near Exposition Park.
"This is an important step in the continued reinvention of downtown Los Angeles," said Carol Schatz, president of the Central City Assn. "We will finally have an urban planning code similar to what you have in Portland, Seattle and New York."
Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents much of downtown and the area south of the 10 that is included in the ordinance, said the changes would encourage developers to build more affordable units so the very poor as well as those who work downtown would be able to afford to live there.
