The Los Angeles City Council will consider a motion Tuesday seeking to codify key provisions of Mayor Karen Bass' executive directive aiming to streamline the process for developing affordable and supportive housing.
Council members Katy Yaroslavsky, Nithya Raman and Council President Paul Krekorian introduced the motion, which would permanently exempt 100% affordable housing proposals from the city's lengthy discretionary review process. Since the mayor signed the directive, it has "dramatically cut" approval time for those projects from an average of six months to just 37 days, officials said.
The council members introduced the motion to maintain provisions of the directive, which would expire without council action.
"The city of Los Angeles is in a housing affordability crisis partially of its own making," Yaroslavsky said in a statement. "For decades, the city has stood in its own way, creating unnecessary bureaucracy that fails to address this crisis with the urgency it requires.
"ED1 (Executive Directive 1) changed that by dramatically shortening the time it takes to get shovels in the ground, and new affordable housing built. We can't go back to the way it was before -- we must take swift action and enshrine ED1 into law," she added.
Raman expressed similar sentiments, adding that "with the directive set to expire, it is critical that we codify ED1 into law, allowing us to continue to meet this crisis with the urgency it requires."
The motion was approved by the Housing and Homeless Committee last week.
Yaroslavsky and Raman also introduced a related motion, which delegates authority to the Los Angeles Housing Department to approve funding for affordable housing projects requesting less than $25 million in city contributions -- as long as they meet specific criteria.
The motion is intended to further reduce delays for development of affordable housing projects. According to Yaroslavsky's office, the two motions represent one of the "most ambitious affordable housing streamlining packages in recent city history."
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