Community Plan Update: Residential, Commercial and Industrial Housing Plans Upzone 5600 Residential Lots
By Lisa Gaines,
Westchester resident since 1987
Last month, we noted that the City’s draft Community Plan Update (CPU) Residential Plan for our Westchester/Playa area incorporated the upzoning of over 4400 residential lots to accommodate an increase of over 20,000 units! We found that the City has two additional housing plans to add even more units known as the Commercial and Industrial Plans upzoning another 1200 units, high density apartments yielding another 20,000 units, depending upon with whom you speak.
How many housing units do we need between all three plans for the next 8 years? The City planners simply won’t say. I think we can all agree that we need more “affordable” housing in all parts of the city, including Westchester, but how much?
Between 2010-2021 our community built 51% of Westside Regional area total units and have 2000 units in the pipeline, clearly doing more than our fair share in housing. We did not have a corresponding job growth to warrant these units suggesting people live in Westchester and commute to their jobs in other communities. Based upon this data, we believe the other community plans should take a larger role in upzoning CPUs.
The Commercial Plan converts all streets parallel to the main corridors (Sepulveda, Manchester, Lincoln, La Tijera) into high-density housing. Because these areas are on transit corridors, Housing Element overlays allow for an additional 3 story and 80% density bonus, and negates parking. On the following map, light pink will allow 8 stories, what is magenta will allow 11 and 18 stories and red allows 18 + stories.
An overlay of Section 8 and RSO housing show concentration along these corridors, and the Nielsen and Osage neighborhoods. If affordable housing is in such a shortage (2% vacancy), why would we want to displace our neighbors with RSO and Section 8 units for years while rebuilding, to be replaced by market rate units?
Any development close to our main transportation corridors will adversely impact the already clogged airport traffic that takes our community to a standstill daily. LAX projects a 35% increase in trips, which translates to an increase in traffic in and around our community WITHOUT any high-density housing added.
Councilmember Traci Park attended the Ad Hoc Community Plan Update Committee meeting on August 28 to hear from constituents and learn of innovative strategies to meet housing needs. It was a packed room, and she commits to another meeting to make sure everyone has a chance to express their views.