The City of Los Angeles is looking to recruit private developers to reimagine some pieces of government-owned land.
The city is looking to bring housing to 12 city-owned properties through a request for qualifications to find developers suitable for the project, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. The search, part of the “Small Lots, Big Impacts” initiative, is an “innovative solution to produce more housing” through “the identification and development of [L.A.’s] large inventory of city-owned sites,” reads a motion introduced by Council member Nithya Raman.
In order to recruit developers to build on the sites, the Los Angeles Housing Department will act through its land development unit to solicit developers to build on the sites. It won’t be a quick process, however, as developing city-owned land can take several years of navigating complex public project development requirements.
The City of Los Angeles owns thousands of lots under a quarter-acre in size, many of which have been empty, save for air, for decades. The “Small Lots, Big Impacts” initiative between the City of Los Angeles and CityLAB at the University of California, Los Angeles, could help redevelop some of these city-owned sites.
Architects have submitted renderings for possible single-family and multifamily structures for the Small Lots, Big Impacts design contest. The contest calls for buildings that bring “gentle density” while blending in with surrounding neighborhoods. Under the initiative, the first round of 12 properties would be sold at fair-market value to hand-picked development teams with the goal of building units for first-time homeowners, with proceeds from the land sales going toward assistance for the first-time homebuyers.
The City of Los Angeles is on the hook to build 456,643 new homes by the end of the decade as part of its housing element. Of those units, 184,721 must be set aside for affordable housing. Statewide, California is pursuing a goal of 2.5 million new homes by 2030.
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