SCALING UP Equitable Housing on public land in Los Angeles

Marshal Public Land
Finding Public Land for <strong>Housing</strong>
Scaling up to 10,000 Units of <strong>Equitable</strong> <strong>Housing</strong> will require a significant amount of public land, 5 but our
current process inhibits scalable development. Most publicly owned sites in Los Angeles enter the
development queue because an elected official, a city department, or a stakeholder has identified a public
site that has not being particularly well used and pushed for it to be developed into housing. While these
types of inputs are an important part of site selection, it prevents us from thinking strategically about
scaling development across multiple properties. Rather than focusing on one parcel at a time or only on
what’s surplus, we recommend starting with the broadest possible inventory of land including property
owned by Federal, State, County, City, and Public Agencies and looking for opportunities for scalable
housing development. Rather than asking “What City owned land is surplus?” let’s ask “What land in public
ownership is the best place to build 10,000 units of housing and can we make it available?”
CONTACT, STATE, AND FEDERAL AGENCIES FOR PUBLIC PROPERTY
Motion: Ryu, Koretz, Cedillo, Harris-Dawson, Krekorian Approved: 08/26/2020
Council File:#20-0064
INSTRUCT the General Services Department, with the assistance of the Department of City Planning, to
contact other local, County, State, and Federal agencies and report with a list of publicly owned properties
that are suitable for the development of supportive housing.
5 For this analysis we estimated 300 acres of land are needed for 10,000 units, based on an average development density of 50
Dwelling Units per acre and setting 1/3 of land area for open space and ancillary public infrastructure.
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