One of LA’s most persistent housing problems is the enormous gap between a single-family house and a large apartment building. This month, Westside residents have an opportunity to help shape a new approach to filling that gap.
On Saturday, August 29, Mar Vista Voice will host a community meeting with Los Angeles City Planning in Westchester to discuss Missing Middle LA, a package of proposed changes intended to make it easier to build smaller, neighborhood-scale housing throughout the city.
The idea behind “missing middle” housing is relatively simple. LA neighborhoods don’t have to choose only between detached single-family houses and large apartment complexes. There is a broad range of housing in between, including duplexes, triplexes and other small multifamily buildings, bungalow and cottage courts, townhomes, row houses, accessory dwelling units and small homes built on individually owned lots. Many of these types of housing are already familiar in parts of older Los Angeles neighborhoods, but zoning and development rules have made them difficult or impossible to build in many places today.
Missing Middle LA is City Planning’s attempt to make more of that housing possible while implementing a series of recent state housing laws. City Planning says the goal is to expand both rental and homeownership opportunities by removing barriers to smaller homes and streamlining the approval process.
The proposals are focused on the city’s low homeownership rate. According to City Planning, just 36 percent of Los Angeles residents own their homes, while the median home price now exceeds $1 million. The theory behind the program is that smaller homes on smaller pieces of land can provide a rung on the housing ladder between renting an apartment and buying a conventional single-family house.
One piece of the proposal is accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. These are the backyard homes, converted garages and other secondary residences that have become an increasingly important source of new housing in the city. Missing Middle LA would update the City’s ADU ordinance to reflect changes in state law and implement AB 1033, which allows jurisdictions to create a process for selling ADUs separately from the primary residence as a condominium. The proposed changes would also address ADUs in hillside and high fire hazard areas.
Another piece deals with SB 9, the 2021 state law that opened some properties zoned for single-family homes to two-unit developments and lot splits. SB 9 allows an eligible single-family lot to accommodate two primary homes or to be divided into two parcels, but is subject to certain restrictions and development standards. Missing Middle LA would incorporate those state requirements into LA’s own zoning code and establish local rules for how they work here.
The proposals go further than SB 9. The City is also updating its Small Lot Subdivision Ordinance and implementing the state’s Starter Home Revitalization Act. Those laws create a streamlined process for certain projects with as many as 10 smaller homes or lots. Los Angeles is proposing a complementary local “Starter Home Bonus Program” and new rules intended to encourage housing forms including townhomes, row houses, bungalow courts and cottage courts.
Design is another major part of the program. City Planning is developing objective standards governing how these projects fit into neighborhoods, with stated goals that include walkability, landscaping, preserving mature trees and existing buildings where possible, and creating a sense of community rather than simply fitting the maximum number of units onto a parcel.
Of course, none of this is final. Draft ordinances were released in June and Planning is currently collecting public feedback that will inform revisions. The proposals include separate draft ordinances covering ADUs, SB 9, small lot subdivisions and starter homes, with additional design standards being released separately.
That makes the August 29 meeting an opportunity to weigh in while the rules are still being developed.
Mar Vista Voice is inviting people who approach LA housing policy from very different directions. That includes renters and homeowners, housing justice organizers and pro-housing advocates, Neighborhood Council members and neighborhood associations, planners, labor and community organizations, and residents who may have concerns about development in their neighborhoods.
Housing debates in Los Angeles frequently become a fight between two poles, preserve neighborhoods as they are or allow substantially more density. Missing middle housing raises a different set of questions. Can Los Angeles create more homes without requiring every new project to be a large apartment building? Can smaller homes create meaningful new opportunities for first-time buyers? How should new housing be designed to fit into existing neighborhoods? What protections are necessary for renters and existing residents? Where should these projects be allowed, and what should the City require in return?
Those are the kinds of questions we want people with different perspectives to discuss together, at Sadie’s next weekend. City Planning staff will give a short presentation explaining what is actually being proposed, followed by interactive activities and small-group discussions. Participants will be able to ask technical questions of City staff and provide feedback that will be collected as part of the City’s community engagement process.
The Missing Middle LA Community Meeting will take place Saturday, August 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Sadie’s Studio, 8342 Lincoln Blvd. in Westchester. Space is limited, and advance registration is encouraged.