AIALA ADVOCACY REPORT
September 17, 2021
From the desk of Will Wright, Hon. AIA|LA
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Action needed for Building Infrastructure Success
The recently Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure package (H.R. 3684) included important policies to improve America’s buildings. However, there is much more to do as Congress debates new infrastructure investments. Help this critical campaign by contacting your Member of Congress today to urge for building sector investments in any federal infrastructure bill.
CA HOUSING LEGISLATION (STATUS UPDATE)
“Governor Newsom’s California Comeback Plan will lead to over 84,000 new housing units and exits from homelessness, including today’s announcement of $1.75 billion in affordable housing funding for the new California Housing Accelerator.”
SB 8 extends the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 to jumpstart more housing production
SB 9 gives homeowners additional tools to add critically needed new housing and help ease California’s housing shortage
SB 10 establishes voluntary, streamlined process for cities to zone for multi-unit housing — making it easier and faster to construct housing
To read the SB 10 Signing messaged from Governor Newsom, click here.
State Announces $1.75 Billion California Housing Accelerator to Fund 90 Shovel Ready Projects; Create More Than 7,000 Affordable Units
Tier 1 applications will be accepted beginning September 30, 2021 and ending October 29, 2021
Project Solicitation and Guidelines
The Residence of Paul R. Williams, FAIA
In a letter signed by AIA LA President Wade Killefer, FAIA, AIA Los Angeles shared support to have Paul R. Williams, FAIA former residence at 1271 West 35th Street designated as a historic-cultural monument.
According to the Los Angeles Conservancy:
“The simple Craftsman style house at 1271 West 35th Street illustrates a part of Paul Revere Williams’ life and story that is rarely told or fully understood. In telling the full story about people and places, it is important to preserve this house as a physical reminder of what Williams achieved and his extraordinary career in architecture.
By the time he was 25 years old, Williams had met and married his wife, Della Mae Givens. They lived with Williams’ foster mother until purchasing their own home at 1271 West 35th Street, a modest house in the West Adams area of South Los Angeles. The neighborhood was home to a large Black community, in large part because it was free of the racial covenants which blanketed Los Angeles at the time.
In Williams’ 1937 essay, “I Am a Negro,” he wrote:
“Today I sketched the preliminary plans for a large country house which will be erected in one of the most beautiful residential districts in the world. Sometimes I have dreamed of living there. I could afford such a home. But this evening, I returned to my own small, inexpensive home… in a comparatively undesirable section of Los Angeles. I must always live in that locality, or in another like it, because…I am a Negro.”
Despite the fact that he was among the more prominent architects in California, if not the United States, until 1951 he was prevented from designing and living in his own dream home. The vast challenges he overcame and the extraordinary achievements he made during an era of racial injustice has inspired generations of architects.”
Therefore, it is profound respect for the architect Paul Revere Williams, FAIA and the significance of his legacy that AIA LA supports the initiative to have the house at 1271 West 35th Street designated as a historic-cultural monument.
SoCal Greenprint
We also recently shared our support for SoCal Greenprint with SCAG.
With investment and implementation from SCAG, the SoCal Greenprint will serve as an important tool for policymakers and civic officials to gain insight into specific information about the land-sue strategies.
The SoCal Greenprint provides the information and resources we need for the region to make smarter and more reliable decisions that will improve the sustainability of our environment and economic systems while planning for growth. Given the challenges that lie ahead, we know that our planning has to be smarter and focused on protecting our treasured natural resources.
Data can help us make better decisions and Southern California has no time to waste in proactively building for a better future. Heat waves, wildfires and chronic poor air quality have made it clear that climate change is a challenge that requires data, action, and visionary leadership.
DTLA 2040 and New Zoning Code
Architects involved with the AIA LA Government Outreach (GO!) Committee are finalizing their draft comments on both the new zoning code and the DTLA 2040 community plan update. While we’re locking comments by the end of today (Sept 17) in order to give the AIA LA Board time to review and endorse, you still have a chance to share your feedback directly with the Los Angeles City Planning Commission (CPC). CPC will be reviewing LACP staff recommendations on Thursday, September 23 (8:30am).
To watch last month’s panel discussion about the new zoning code: AIALA & LACP present The New Zoning Code 201
To gain some understanding for how Councilmember Kevin DeLeon is helping to shape the final stages of the downtown LA community update process it’s worthwhile to read his two most recent letters to LACP.
June 15th Letter from Councilmember Kevin DeLeon about DTLA 2040
September 13th Letter from Councilmember Kevin DeLeon about DTLA 2040
To better understand the prospective impacts of the new zoning code on the Arts District in Downtown LA, AIA members Joey Shimoda, FAIA and Chris Carlton, AIA have prepared a VISUAL STUDY.
This visual study also helps to reinforce the concerns we’re hearing from the AIALA Government Outreach Committee (GO!) members Chava Danielson, AIA and Tracy Stone, AIA: that the zoning sections regarding Form, Frontage, Standards & Use and Density are too prescriptive and need to be revised to allow for creativity and diversity in aesthetics and construction. As it stands this document is too granular and contains many contradictions in its prescription. The density and the complexity of the current version will create an administrative nightmare for the city in its implementation and interpretation. Many of the prescriptions for dimensional minimums and maximums are not reflective of real market conditions and place unnecessary limitations on creativity. The code will inadvertently create requirements that will effectively negate Los Angeles as a competitive and desirable place to invest in. The result will negatively effect the future of Los Angeles.
An example of this issue occurs with the establishment of ‘build to’ requirements – an element in many cities’ zoning and planning documents but new to Los Angeles. We support the Planning Department goals of activating street fronts and the public realm in general, however, this is a dated tool that we feel will have the opposite effect in Los Angeles. The creation of a strong street wall using ‘build to’ requirements increases privatization and enclosure of ground floor spaces, increasing segregation between neighborhoods and exacerbating the problem of under sized sidewalk widths throughout most of our city. Pedestrian Amenity Allowances will be a great tool in this regard and should be allowed up to the full width of the lot frontage, by right
PLEASE NOTE: The team from Los Angeles City Planning working on the new zoning code are doing a diligent, careful, and comprehensive overall of the zoning code to consolidate all of the provisions into a centralized location. However, the downside is that too often the City of LA asks its zoning code to execute specific policies and societal outcomes, while perhaps well-intended, do little more than to bake-in potential inequities or unintentional (and litigious) complexities down the road. The fix in my opinion is to not ask our zoning code to arbitrate societal challenges and instead address those challenges on a separate framework.
Los Angeles City Planning (LACP) and the Los Angeles Housing Department (LAHD) recently released a revised draft of the Plan To House LA, which integrates feedback heard during the July outreach process as well as comments provided by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
AIA LA encourages all architects and designers to join the next round of public hearings, which take place next week – September 21 and 22.
Public Hearings – to attend virtual hearings click on the links below at the date/ time indicated
Tuesday, September 21 (6:00 – 8:00pm)
Wednesday, September 22 (11am – 1pm)
We anticipate that the draft Housing Element will advance to the City Planning Commission on October 14th.
Several city council members issued a letter to LACP underscoring their priorities. I think it’s very helpful to review this letter and gain more insight into how the housing leaders of our current city council are helping to frame the public dialogue.
Prime take-aways include:
- Incentive Program
- Rezoning Program
- Removing Barriers to Housing Production
- Expediting Affordable Housing
- Missing Middle
- Community Plan Updates
To read the revised 2021 – 2029 housing element, please click here.
Housing Element Resources
Abundant Housing LA has compiled an excellent library of resources and is actively engaging with all municipalities in Los Angeles County to ensure that each city is doing their part to address our regional housing shortage = Housing Element Letters and Resources.
Ideas from Abundant Housing LA:
● An automatic density bonus on inventory sites
● An option for developers to elect ministerial permitting of projects on inventory sites
● A procedure for developers to obtain waivers of fee, exaction, or parking and design requirements that make it economically infeasible to develop inventory sites to the density the housing element anticipated
The California Department of Housing and Community Development has also helped to establish best-practices for how to optimize land-use for housing.
Housing Element Site Inventory Guidebook Government Code Section 65583.2
The Alliance for Community Transit – Los Angeles (ACT-LA) has also shared a letter to hight their key priorities for more equitable housing development in the region.
Comment letter on the 2021-2029 LA Housing Element Update
Former LA City Councilmember and Planning Commissioner Michael Woo also recently wrote a letter with insight and recommendations to best address our “housing emergency” for the Fall 2021 issue of the Southern California Quarterly and gave me permission to share it here.
Housing Letter from Michael Woo
AIA California
Building Decarbonization Practice Guide: First Installment Now Available!
AIA California announces the first installment of The Building Decarbonization Practice Guide: A Zero Carbon Future for the Built Environment is complete!
This first of four installments includes a 75-page release includes: Volumes 1 (Intro) & 2 (Universal Design Considerations)
The purpose of the Guide is to fill major information gaps in the industry—The Why and How of exactly how to accomplish decarbonized design.
Be on the lookout for the next installments in the next few months.
This document, brought to you by the William Worthen Foundation, will help those who are entering the zero carbon emissions world with vital information, and will also serve as a staple guide for those already committed to the 2030 Commitment.
