Planners Support Rules to Ease L.A.’s Housing Crunch

Despite objections from homeowner groups, the Los Angeles Planning Commission recommended Thursday that the City Council consider proposals to ease restrictions on the construction of affordable housing.

Current conditions and city planning rules have resulted in a net annual increase of about 3,000 units of affordable housing, when 8,000 units are needed each year to meet the demand of the city’s growing population, Commissioner Rodger Landau said.

Landau said Thursday’s action only triggers council study of the ideas.

“This is only a suggestion that the City Council direct the Planning Department to determine how it can be done,” he said.

The 28 proposals aim to encourage more affordable housing to be built at transit hubs and closer to jobs and shopping, while streamlining the development process.

Although some affordable-housing advocates testified in favor of the proposals, the majority who addressed the commission voiced concerns about any changes hurting existing neighborhoods.

Gordon Murley, president of the San Fernando Valley Federation, told the commission that the city has not provided the transportation systems needed to serve neighborhoods of higher density.

The result, he said, could be more traffic congestion.

The same concern was voiced by Joan Luchs, president of the Cahuenga Pass Neighborhood Assn., who also worried about the encroachment of apartment buildings into areas of detached homes.

“We shouldn’t sacrifice single-family residential areas,” she said.

Murley and Luchs also voiced concern about eliminating the requirement of public hearings for many affordable housing projects, and said that would deprive surrounding neighborhoods of a say in what is built nearby.