A request by L.A. County officials to temporarily waive state housing laws as residents rebuild in fire-ravaged swaths of unincorporated areas drew the ire of housing advocates, who accused the officials of skirting efforts at boosting affordable housing.
County Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Lindsey Horvath, who represent districts blackened by this month’s wildfires, put forward a motion Tuesday with 41 steps they want department heads to take to speed up the recovery process.
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That included an ask to Gov. Gavin Newsom to temporarily exempt the county from some of the state’s most significant housing laws intended to speed up the creation of affordable housing, including parts of Senate Bill 330, aimed at preserving affordable housing, and the Density Bonus Law, which encourages developers to build new units.
Amy Bodek, head of the county planning department, said she believed the state laws could end up hampering recovery, incentivizing density at the expense of homeowners looking to rebuild what they had.
“In order to provide the community the ability to return and not face immediate displacement, we understand the need to pause some of these policies,” she said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, adding that she wanted to ask for a five-year waiver for unincorporated areas, which include Altadena and some of the communities burned by the Palisades fire.
“We are not antihousing,” she said. “To say that we are antihousing is someone that’s not been paying attention.”
At the meeting, housing advocates contended that the county‘s waiver proposal would slash too many restrictions, bypassing laws aimed at solving the region’s affordable housing crisis.
“This is just totally going in the wrong direction,” said Nolan Gray, senior director of legislation and research for California YIMBY, noting that the laws have spurred the construction of thousands of affordable units across the state. “There’s so much in here that has nothing to do with helping people rebuild.”
Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis who studies California housing law, said the county was too broad in requesting a waiver in undefined “fire impacted communities.”
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!
As the shrinking of the national population continues. As the handing out of lousy planning housing that is killing the State to illegals and more.
Guess what is the outcome as proven in other states! Lack of long term pride in ownership or living accommodations results in slums the taxpayers will then be asked to tear down and rebuild.
Stupid is as stupid does and that is the exact and specific definition of the Democrat Party.
My my MY!!!! That just adds MORE fuel to the discussion that MAYBE this was all a set up so the state could use their powers to re-claim the land for them!!! Makes it sound WAY more plausible when they want to stand in the way of people re-building what they lost!!!
Wonder how THEY would feel – eh?????