In the small city of Santa Monica, the severity of the region’s housing crisis is pushing policy. Our city must prove to the State Department of Housing and Community Development, by the deadline of October 2021, that there is enough capacity within it’s jurisdictional boundaries of 16 square miles to accommodate the cyclical RHNA targets. This is the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, which has increased 5-fold over the last cycle’s numbers, to 8,874 units built by 2029. These staggering figures are a microcosm of what Los Angeles County and Southern California as a whole are facing in the pursuit of more room for a growing population. Take a peek at some neighboring cities, and their RHNA targets:
Santa Monica 8,874
Torrance 4,928
West Hollywood 3,924
Culver City 3,333
Beverly Hills 3,096
Redondo Beach 2,483
Las Virgenes/Malibu 932
Manhattan Beach 773
Rancho Palos Verdes 638
Hermosa Beach 556
El Segundo 491
Calabasas 353
Agoura Hills 318
Palos Verdes Estates 198
Westlake Village 142
Malibu 78
If you are not a member of municipal government, you may not feel the weight of these assessments. If you are not a private developer, you will not be positioning your company to win the contracts and earn the profit. But you may want to keep reading anyway.
Homeowners, there is something important here for you.
Getting a construction project permitted in Los Angeles is…let’s just say…complex. Coastal, or historic property owners have additional layers of complexity which can often render projects too expensive to even consider. Given the severity of the housing shortage in our cities, and the urgency to meet HNRA targets, municipalities are encouraging a wide range of solutions, and lowering hurdles for certain kinds of development. One of these is a micro-development method which I call a ‘stream unit’. State law refers to it as a JADU (junior accessory dwelling unit). This is the lowest impact, highest value, most sustainable way to deliver housing units to the community. Every homeowner, in every California zip code, may design a ‘stream unit’ into their home ‘by right’. Plan review time in the City of Santa Monica is only 5 days. The turnkey unit can be ready in 6 months or less.
The construction cost is about the same as a new car.
Peer to peer housing solutions like this not only count towards HRNA targets to benefit the entire community, but they guarantee a quick return, and a steady income stream to the homeowner. Because of the modest cost and lightning fast project timeline, this type of development is the most accessible and attractive way to make the most of your biggest investment: your home.
It is easy to envision homeowners leading the way to making Los Angeles the model of abundant housing.
Let’s go!
PostFab 