A HUGE new upzoning bill has finally been published:

AB-647 would allow eight units by-right on all residential lots statewide

One unit must be affordable at 80 AMI

Cities must allow 2 FAR and +1 story of height What is particularly exciting about this bill is that it is written and sponsored by LA-based progressive groups rather than YIMBYs

These groups understand that to have affordable rents, we have solve the housing shortage

The City of Los Angeles and UCLA launched something really cool and innovative today.

It’s an architectural design competition for housing on small, vacant, city-owned lots, but it has a twist... Most surplus land projects are on larger lots that can support tax-credit affordable housing development.

But the City of LA owns a bunch of random lots that are too small for this, many in single family neighborhoods.

These just sit vacant.

This is Resia Ten Oaks

Located in far-suburban Houston, TX, it's about the last place you'd expect to find a high-rise development

This development is particularly interesting because it was built using a construction technique not normally found in America I've heard this technique be called concrete "shell" construction.

Unlike typical US high-rises, where the main structural components are columns and beams, in shell construction walls serve as major structural supports

Want to see a magic trick?

Here’s how to turn one house into 50 using California state law: First, purchase this home in Northridge on a 2.34 acre lot for $4.8 million

Let’s take a look at the highest-realistic-capacity sites in LA’s draft list of rezoned Housing Element sites.

I understand the city is working on an updated list, but as it stands, things are not looking great... Site 1, with a listed realistic capacity of 3187 units, is part of LMU’s campus.

The list incorrectly says there are 97 existing units when there are hundreds.

In addition, student housing can’t legally count towards RHNA (which is dumb, but that’s the law)

Los Angeles has one of the lowest homeownership rates in the country, and you pretty much have to be a millionaire to buy a home here.

Luckily, we can fix this with the LA Starter Homes Act!
🧵⬇️ Why are homes in LA so expensive?

Primarily, it’s because of land.

Land in LA is really, really expensive. When you buy a $1.5 million home, you’re really paying $1.2 million for the land and $300k for the house itself

HCD says that LA’s “Housing Element Sites and Minimum Density Ordinance” complies with state law.

But does it comply with LA’s Housing Element?
⬇️ If a city doesn’t have enough housing capacity, they’re required to put together a program to rezone to add capacity.

As part of this program, cities must designate specific “Lower Income Rezoning” sites which must allow by-right approval for projects with 20% affordable housing

An update on what’s going on with CHIP, single-family upzoning in Los Angeles, and whether LA could face the Builder’s Remedy: Yesterday, to no one’s surprise, LA’s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Council Committee voted to move CHIP forward without adopting any of the proposals that would allow more housing in single-family neighborhoods

There’s a non-zero chance we’re going to see Builder’s Remedy go into effect in LA starting in March

Builder’s Remedy is also changing drastically next year, so here’s an idea of what this would look like: Builder’s Remedy would not automatically kick in. Although we’d become out-of-compliance on February 12, a housing element is still considered adopted until it’s decertified, and HCD gives cities a 30-day grace period before decertifying

California law prohibits cities from requiring parking for projects within a half-mile of a Major Transit Stop.

In theory, this is very straightforward. In practice, well, you'll see: Everyone and their mother has a map of Major Transit Stops. Unfortunately, they're all wrong.

This is Metro's map for West LA and Santa Monica

Gentrification might be the most misunderstood concept in housing:
🧵⬇️ Everyone:

-The Public
-Tenant Activists
-NIMBYs
-YIMBYs
-Developers

gets some parts of it wrong

Sometimes a floor plan will look terrible in plan view but actually be great in real life. Today I got to witness this first-hand 🧵 When I posted about SoLa Impact back in April, people were impressed by what they're doing, but there also was a lot of criticism of the floor plan

https://twitter.com/CohenSite/status/1649244114674675719

Looks aside, this is actually a fascinating project, and likely the future of construction in California 🧵⬇️

https://twitter.com/JumpInRE/status/1641910040545177600

First, Project One was built by a mysterious startup founded by @benhuh, who previously ran the internet classic "I Can Has Cheezburger?"

You usually only hear business stories from people who are trying to promote themselves.

This is the story of Anne M, a woman who “accidentally” bought a small glass business in her 60’s and grew it into the 17th largest glazing company in the US How did I meet Anne M?

In college, I was doing property research and discovered that a bunch of the apartment buildings nearby were owned by the same 90-year-old woman

I knew I had to interview her, but I had no idea of the breadth of her accomplishments

Ever wonder why California developers don't build buildings between 8 and 20 floors? For once, it's not zoning... First, if you're going over 7 floors (now 8), you can't build a 5 over 1 wood building. You have to build in concrete or steel (or now mass timber), which is particularly expensive in CA.

But that's not all