If you're interested in fighting back against Measure S and the backward-looking, anti-housing campaign to "Preserve LA," you can join me and hundreds of your fellows as a member of Abundant Housing LA. Membership is cost- and commitment-free, and we'll keep you up to date with key actions and updates as the election nears!
If Measure S passes, it would indefinitely stop the redevelopment of this literal trash heap at 2117 E Violet St into 509 new apartments, including 76 units affordable to low-income households. Image source: Google Maps.
Last week I compiled a list of 19,000 housing units that couldn't be built if Measure S passes in the Los Angeles election being held on March 7th. That's nineteen thousand homes that wouldn't be built amidst a historic housing shortage and record-low vacancy rates for rental housing.
Because these projects would all require either a general plan amendment, zone change, or height district change (or some combination of the three), they would be banned for at least the next 2 years. The projects that require general plan amendments would be banned for as long as it takes the city to update its general plan, which could require up to 10 years, depending on community input and the inevitable delay of lawsuits from people like Michael Weinstein.
Most of the developments listed in last week's post were proposed in 2016. This week I took a look at more recent projects: those proposed in the last 3 weeks or so, between January 23rd and February 14th, 2017.
In that short span of time, plans were filed for about 3,400 more housing units—many of them in or around downtown—including over 1,300 affordable homes: those set aside exclusively for low-income households. All but 4 of those affordable units are in projects requesting a general plan amendment, so all of them would be prevented from going forward for years. Yes, even the 100% affordable developments.
Nearly 1,000 of the 1,300 affordable units would be built by non-profit affordable housing developers, including those that specifically serve the homeless. Every project requires a general plan amendment, so all of them would be blocked by Measure S.This isn't the kind of change that the Measure S campaign has been promising, but it's the change we'll get if it passes in March.
Don't let them stop the construction of desperately-needed housing in Los Angeles, and don't let them destroy the benefits of Measure JJJ and HHH, both approved overwhelmingly by LA voters just 3 months ago. Vote by mail or get to the polls on March 7th and vote No on Measure S.