The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a phased housing strategy that would delay the full effects of a sweeping state density law — and give the city more control over how it grows.
According to MyNewsLA.com, the council approved a plan to upzone 55 single-family and low-density neighborhoods across the city, allowing buildings of four to 16 units and up to four stories tall. The affected areas span Central Los Angeles, West Los Angeles, the Eastside, and the San Fernando Valley.
The move is designed to delay implementation of Senate Bill 79 (SB 79) — the state’s Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act — until 2030. The law, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last year, overrides local zoning rules and allows developers to build taller, denser housing near transit stops. Under SB 79, buildings near certain transit stops could reach up to nine stories, seven stories within a quarter-mile, and six stories within a half-mile.
SB 79 is set to take effect July 1. Without the council’s action, 141 transit stop areas across the city would have been upzoned immediately — though about 88% of those sites already qualified for exemptions due to factors like fire severity zones or historic preservation overlays. The council’s plan stops upzoning in the remaining 12% and spreads lighter density across the 55 designated areas instead.
The adopted strategy — known as Option C1 — expands the city’s corridor transition program, a component of Los Angeles’s Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP), which was enacted in 2025 to encourage affordable housing development near transit hubs. The expansion allows three- to four-story multifamily buildings in moderate- and higher-opportunity areas, including some single-family zones.
The council considered two other options that were more aggressive. The second would have allowed eight-story buildings within a half-mile of 23 transit stops. The third, backed by housing advocates, would have allowed eight-story buildings within a half-mile of 55 transit stops.
Housing advocates criticized the approved plan as the least ambitious of the three, and also pointed out that the corridor transition program has produced no new housing since it was created. Homeowners, by contrast, largely supported the decision as a way to protect their communities from more dramatic upzoning.
Councilmember Bob Blumenfield acknowledged the tension. “While we as a body opposed SB 79 … the reason for it was legitimate,” he said. “It’s to create more opportunities for housing construction and focus development in areas of high-quality transit. That is a worthy goal.”
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky — who called the plan “phase one” — introduced two follow-up motions Tuesday (March 24) in response to concerns about the corridor program’s track record. “I’m not interested in passing [this option] today, giving ourselves a pat on the back and calling it a day for four years,” she said. “If this doesn’t result in housing that gets built, none of this matters.”
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the first motion aims to reform the corridor program to make new housing types financially feasible and more likely to be built. The second would direct city planning staff to develop a framework for gradually increasing density near transit corridors and into surrounding neighborhoods. Both motions will be reviewed by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
The city’s adopted plan still requires no pushback from Sacramento to take full effect and delay SB 79 until 2030. If state officials object, the broader upzoning provisions of the law could still move forward on the original July 1 timeline.
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