August 3, 2020
VIA E-MAIL
State Senator Ben Allen
State Assemblymember Autumn Burke
State Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager-Dove
Re: Pending planning and land use bills
To our legislators:
As you consider the bills listed in the postscript below, we want your votes
to be guided by the following considerations:
1. The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed how we live, work
and move. It has made life more uncertain and has decreased the
transparency of the legislative process by limiting debate. Therefore, we
strongly recommend holding off on passing any bills that encourage real
estate development until we know more about the effects of the pandemic.
If people are going to continue spending more time at home, the need for
access to clean open space will be even more important than it is now.
2. State legislation should not override local land use and planning. The
people who must live with a project must be able to shape what is built.
3. Housing will not be made more affordable simply by allowing more units to
be built. When a developer is allowed to build more density than would
be allowed by the Community Plan, the developer is granted an economic
benefit (density bonus) at the expense of the surrounding community. In
the end, too few affordable units are actually created to warrant the
burden borne by the community.
4. When housing units are added to a community, provision must be made
for the public services that will be needed for those new residents – water,
power, sanitation, transportation (roads, transit, parking), health and safety
(police, fire, medical care), libraries, parks.
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5. The new laws must also consider that the burden from increased density
usually lands on the neighborhoods that are already zoned for higher
density, resulting in a less equitable distribution of the public amenities
that improve the quality of life in a neighborhood.
7. The data about average household income in Los Angeles suggests that
at least half of the households in our area could qualify for an “affordable”
unit. However, we cannot build our way out of this shortage. Legislation
must prioritize the construction of projects that will be 100% dedicated to
meeting the housing needs of the most vulnerable – people who are
elderly, sick or disabled, i.e. the people who are unlikely to be able to earn
enough to pay for housing at market rates.
The nine bills listed below have been rushed through the legislative process
during a time when public participation is greatly limited due to the COVID
pandemic. The Legislature seems to be exploiting the pandemic to usurp
local control over land use decisions. These bills will cause our
neighborhoods to fall further behind in supplying affordable housing while
over-rewarding market-rate development. Please reject these bills.
This letter was approved by our Land Use Committee on July 28, and by our
full board at its meeting on Monday, August 3, 2020.
Best regards,
Maureen Madison
President
Del Rey Residents Association
PENDING LEGISLATION (PROPOSED VOTES)
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SB 1120 (Wiener and Atkins) – NO
SB 902 (Wiener) – NO
SB 995 (Wiener and Atkins) – NO
SB 1085 (Skinner) – NO
AB 725 (Wicks and Wiener) – NO
AB 1279 (Bloom) – NO
AB 2345 (Gonzalez and Chiu) – NO
AB 3040 (Chiu) – NO
AB 3107 (Bloom and Ting) – NO