Mayor Eric Garcetti said Tuesday he is concerned a proposed ballot measure to halt so-called “mega projects” could make it more expensive to live in Los Angeles, but supporters said Garcetti’s plan to boost development will lead to more luxury apartments and gentrification.
A coalition of residents and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation are seeking to qualify an initiative for the November ballot that would put a moratorium on spot-zoning, the city’s practice of giving exceptions to some developers who want to build bigger, denser and taller projects than is typically allowed in a particular community.
Garcetti said he is worried about what the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative “would do to depress the growth and the construction that we need for the average person — middle class person — not to pay higher and higher rents.”
“I think it could endanger and make sure that those rents go up,” he said during a news conference on an unrelated issue.
Garcetti said Los Angeles faces a housing crisis that is leading to more homelessness and many residents using most of their income on rent.
“We need to build more housing to get out from under that,” he said.
Garcetti has set a goal of helping 100,000 additional units get built in Los Angeles by 2021.
The mayor’s comments come after the Coalition to Preserve L.A., the proponents of the initiative effort, on Monday called on Garcetti and state lawmakers to commit to getting 20,000 affordable units built in Los Angeles that have monthly rents of $600 or less for one bedroom, or $800 or less for two bedrooms.
The coalition said newer projects that are marketed to higher-income residents have taken the place of older, more affordable housing in the city.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein, one of the ballot initiative proponents, said the mega projects that receive exemptions from the city tend to be built for luxury residents.
“Gentrification always pushes out middle-income and poor people,” he said. “This is like trickle-down planning — somehow, if you build for the rich you can help the poor.”
Weinstein added that “instead of building these glass and steel towers, which are so expensive to construct, I would look at infill projects that you can construct much less expensively.”
Garcetti said today he wants to meet with Weinstein to discuss different ideas for achieving the same goals, and would not have “unintended consequences.”
“I’ve also talked to people in the labor and business community who are worried about that,” Garcetti said. “Just everyday citizens who want us to continue to be able to build more housing” such as young families or residents in their 20s or 30s.
Weinstein said he is open to meeting with Garcetti but has not received a call from him.
Weinstein said when Garcetti first entered office, he had requested a meeting to talk about a variety of issues but was refused.
Weinstein said he believes Garcetti and other officials “are aware their position is highly unpopular with the majority of people, and that’s why these overtures are being made.
Weinstein said he would be “happy to talk to see if we can find common ground,” which for him, “has to be to make it more difficult to get exemptions.”
Garcetti also said today he agrees there should be fewer spot zoning and variances made for projects, but said this would mean “updating our community plans and our city plan.”
Such plans set building guidelines for the city and specific neighborhoods and in some cases have not been updated since the 1980s. Garcetti noted that the city faces a “complex legal environment” in which plans that are updated are frequently challenged or tied up in court.
Weinstein pushed back, saying that “if the community plan wrecks the neighborhood, the community is going to object to it.”
Weinstein told City News Service on Monday that he feels Garcetti was a strong supporter of mega projects, such as skyscrapers, while serving as a councilman for the Hollywood area.
Weinstein underscored this impression today, saying “Councilman Garcetti never met an exemption he didn’t like.”
“He’s been a champion of spot-zoning,” Weinstein said. “All these projects, the most controversial, are from his district.”
Weinstein had expressed hope on Monday that the mayor’s nomination of Pasadena planning official Vince Bertoni as the new Los Angeles Planning Department director would signal a change in the city’s development policies, preferably toward more “human-scale” and pedestrian friendly projects that seem to characterize Pasadena.
“We hope that this is a change of direction by the mayor, and that the new administration will look at things more carefully and consider impacts in the neighborhoods,” Weinstein said.
–City News Service