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LA’s cramped rezoning plan still short of housing goals says UCLA study

2024-11-19T11:09:00-05:00

Under state laws designed to remedy a housing shortage, the city has to set aside land for the construction of 250,000 more homes than allowed through existing zoning rules. Measures under consideration by a City Council committee are likely to satisfy the state requirements, the UCLA analysis found. But when analyzing the likelihood of what developers would actually build, researchers found the number of new homes would be far lower.

The L.A. City Council is expected to vote later this afternoon to approve the rezoning measure. The report's co-author Shane Phillips of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies says the city would be better served if its generous slate of incentives was expanded to cover the remaining 72% of neighborhoods currently zoned for single-family houses. Others have labeled this plan as exclusionary for that reason. Planners face a state mandate to find space for at least 250,000 new housing units by mid-February.

Foster + Partners' revised Television City modernization plans gets go-ahead from L.A. City Planning

2024-09-16T17:19:00-04:00

The large-scale modernization of CBS Television City in Fairfax, Los Angeles led by Foster + Partners is moving forward with an endorsement from the Los Angeles City Planning Commission. The revised version of the $1 billion project, which preserves existing William Pereira-designed heritage structures, is now less its originally proposed 15-story office tower component. The new plan results in shorter commercial buildings along Fairfax Avenue and a maximum of 500,000 square feet for general office space with another 712,000 square feet used for productions.

RIOS and Adamson Associates are included as part of the design team. Opponents had been claiming the project violated local zoning mandates. It has been in operation since 1952. Multiple outlets have said construction is expected to be complete by the end of 2028.

Listen to 'Next Up: The LA River' Mini-Session #7 with Renee Dake Wilson (LA City Planning Commission) and Alexander Robinson (Office of Outdoor Research)

2016-11-23T13:17:00-05:00

Our penultimate Mini-Session interview from 'Next Up: The LA River' pairs architects Renee Dake Wilson and Alexander Robinson. Dake Wilson, principal at Dake Wilson Architects, was appointed by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti to serve as Vice President on the city's volunteer-based Planning Commission—an array of professionals who make recommendations between communities and the city on planning projects. On the commission, she's worked particularly with proposals to change the height and density limits on development in Elysian Valley, aka Frogtown—the neighborhood along the LA River that has become a major node in the city's ongoing gentrification discussion.

Robinson, while teaching at USC as an assistant professor, runs the Office of Outdoor Research and just recently completed a term as a Rome Prize recipient, researching the Tiber River as it relates to LA's and other cities' river infrastructures. He has also previously worked with Mia Lehrer's office on LA River projects.

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