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California's inventory of disused strip malls may be an overlooked option to shore up its housing stock by 2030

2022-05-02T12:35:00-04:00

Converting empty or underutilized strip malls and shopping centers into mixed-use residential and retail developments could help solve California’s housing shortage crisis and allow stores to stay afloat amid the shift to online shopping, said housing experts and industry leaders during a panel at the Urban Land Institute’s spring meeting last week in San Diego. However, that transformation will require cities to change their land-use policies.

Greyfield land may be the most underutilized resource in the state’s harried attempt to create the more than 2.5 million housing units required to meet demands set forth by the Department of Housing and Community Development in March. A bill introduced last week by state rep Buffy Wicks would include them along with disused offices and environmentally unhealthy parking lot spaces in a zoning update that could allow developers to make relatively quick conversions into mixed-use sites with job-site provisions for apprenticeship employment.

With a portion of the state's population moving east, the measure has the most potential in embattled urban areas like LA or San Diego. According to a report from UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, around 40% of the state’s 50 largest cities do not allow for residential development on designated commercial plots currently....

Can dead "big-box" stores live a second life?

2015-11-16T12:49:00-05:00

In suburbs, cities and rural areas, [big-box stores] can present a reuse and rehab conundrum, particularly as retailers become more sophisticated about controlling leases and redevelopment. [...] With the big-box model, stores are rarely remodeled. [...] A kind of “retail cannibalism” emerges, where companies compete for market share with ever-shinier facades that leave aging stores behind as the asphalt fades.

More on the fading development of big-box stores:

New Gehry mixed-user in the works at "gateway to the Sunset Strip"

2015-03-09T19:22:00-04:00

That unattractive strip mall on the corner of Sunset and Crescent Heights boulevards ... will be razed in favor of a Frank Gehry-designed mixed-use development [...] The state last year deemed the project to be L.A. County's first California Environmental Leadership Development Project. To qualify developments must see at least $100 million in investment, achieve LEED Silver certification or better, and emit zero net greenhouse gases.