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Feature Articles |
Multifamily Housing and the Fear of DensityMay 25, 2001ULI LA's September breakfast program on "Multifamily Housing" appeared against the backdrop of a model multifamily project: The Medici, downtown L.A.'s new market-rate apartment complex developed by G.H. Palmer & Associates, which also sponsored the event. The program subtitle, "Supply and Demand," pointed to the difficulties of this issue, which go to the heart of Los Angeles' housing crisis. As one panelist, Robert Charles Lesser & Company Senior Vice President Robert J. Gardner noted, the city's total need is 80,000-90,000 new units per year, yet "we are projected to add only 5,000 units" in 2001. Among the more immediate solutions, he said, are to rezone areas for higher density, change the entitlement process, "or anything that can affect the developer's pro-forma, lowering the cost of land."Moderator Mary Ann King, a partner with Moran & Company, cited Los Angeles' ingrained NIMBYism as one roadblock. "More density means more traffic" is the political perception, she said, and "the public sector needs to provide more leadership on the density issue" before it becomes an economic catastrophe. Former L.A. City Councilmember and Director of Los Angeles Programs, Local Initiatives Support Corporation Michael Woo, agreed, saying, "We're not looking at the big picture of both market rate and affordable housing. What's needed is a coalition to fight for a change to reduce parking for units near transit stops, for example." Johannes Van Tilburg, principal of Van Tilburg, Banvard and Soderbergh architects, offered creative approaches to the dilemma. He noted the similarities in scale between Los Angeles and Paris, but suggested that Paris' higher average density of 200 units per acre could accommodate L.A.'s growth. In addition, "placemaking" in communities such as Santa Monica and Pasadena, where Van Tilburg's firm has designed successful mixed-use developments, could help in the marketing of higher density. "People are attracted to the lure of the local," he said. He also pointed to a recent University of Southern California study which found that building three to four stories of housing above strip retail could create numerous 60 to 80-unit buildings. "We could build 750,000 units along empty or underused parcels along boulevards." Until that happens, however, Los Angeles is stuck with the attitude often expressed to Geoff Palmer of G.H. Palmer & Associates in his attempts to develop multifamily housing in areas such as Santa Clarita Valley. "People say, 'We don't want those kinds of people in our community.' I say we should re-gentrify downtown Los Angeles." Jack Skelley is public relations manager for Roddan Paolucci Roddan in Palos Verdes Estates and serves on the ULI LA Executive Committee. | |
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