CHIPing In: Evaluating the effects of LA’s Citywide Housing Incentive Program on neighborhood development potential
The City of Los Angeles has a housing production target of 456,643 units for 2021-2029, increased from just 82,002 units for 2013-2021. As part of its housing element obligations, the city must approve zoning changes to accommodate more than 255,000 additional units by February 2025. Most of this additional capacity is expected to be delivered via the proposed Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP).
Although the city’s adopted housing element included programs for rezoning some single-family zoned parcels, these programs were removed prior to releasing the CHIP ordinance for public comment. Single-family zoning prohibits lower-cost multifamily housing and accounts for 74% of residentially zoned land in LA.
Exempting single-family parcels from zoning reform raises questions about the city’s ability to meet its housing production goals and to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH), as required by state law. We evaluate CHIP along these two dimensions.
