{"id":616234,"date":"2026-02-25T23:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/616234\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T23:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:53:12","slug":"state-law-puts-more-homes-near-train-stops-if-la-wants-to-delay-that-it-must-pick-areas-to-upzone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/616234\/","title":{"rendered":"State law puts more homes near train stops. If LA wants to delay that, it must pick areas to upzone"},"content":{"rendered":"

After California lawmakers passed a state housing law<\/a> that allows taller apartment buildings near train lines, Los Angeles leaders are facing a tradeoff: If they want to delay full implementation of the law, they\u2019ll have to choose some parts of the city to upzone.<\/p>\n

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 79 into law last year. Starting July 1, the law is set to allow apartment buildings up to nine stories tall to be built next to subway stations and smaller buildings within a half-mile of light rail and rapid bus stops.<\/p>\n

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and a slim majority of the L.A. City Council had expressed opposition<\/a> to SB 79, in keeping with the long-standing preference of many city leaders to leave untouched<\/a> the three-quarters of L.A.\u2019s residential land zoned for single-family homes.<\/p>\n

Now, some L.A. leaders are scrambling to pull a delay lever that was built into SB 79. The provision allows cities to put off the law\u2019s broadest effects until 2030, as long as they agree to allow more housing development in certain neighborhoods in the interim.<\/p>\n

Learn the ins and outs behind L.A.’s housing crisis.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Building Your Block, a seven-issue newsletter course from LAist that explains the obstacles around housing development in L.A. and what you can do to make things better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don’t do this, what happens is SB 79 goes into effect full-on,\u201d said Bob Blumenfield, chair of the council\u2019s Planning and Land Use Committee, during a meeting on Tuesday. \u201cI really want to avoid that happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Options for delay<\/p>\n

The state law lets cities delay implementation in neighborhoods deemed to be \u201clow resource,\u201d in areas at high risk of fires or sea level rise or are designated as historically significant. Even with those carve-outs, some higher-income neighborhoods near train stops will still be subject to upzoning.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s Planning Department produced a report<\/a> last week laying out three different approaches for the City Council to delay SB 79. All of them involve local incentive programs that would allow developers to build apartment buildings in neighborhoods currently zoned for single-family homes.<\/p>\n

The first option would allow buildings up to four stories tall, while the second and third options would permit buildings up to eight stories.<\/p>\n

During the committee meeting Tuesday, homeowners spoke against the changes the new law would bring and the city\u2019s upzoning plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingle-family neighborhoods are where families put down roots \u2014 they are the beating heart of Los Angeles and SB 79 runs a stake right through that heart,\u201d said Shelley Wagers with the Beverly Grove Neighborhood Association. \u201cWe must use every tool to prevent irreversible harm and buy time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates for increased housing development said they favored the report\u2019s third option, which would allow mid-sized apartment buildings within a half-mile of existing train stops, as well as planned stations and rapid bus stops.<\/p>\n

Scott Epstein, policy director for Abundant Housing L.A., said that approach \u201coffers the best opportunity to meet our housing targets and ensure that neighborhoods rich in transit services and high-quality schools are doing their part.\u201d<\/p>\n

What happens next<\/p>\n

The Planning and Land Use Committee could not get a three-person majority to agree on the best path forward, so the decision will now go to the full City Council for further debate.<\/p>\n

Blumenfield said his recommendation as committee chair was to allow mid-rise apartment buildings in many neighborhoods, but only near existing train stops, not planned stations or rapid bus stops. He also recommended more exemptions for certain historic preservation zones.<\/p>\n

Nithya Raman, a committee member who is also running for L.A. Mayor<\/a>, said she found the report\u2019s recommendations difficult to follow. Passing a delayed implementation plan could stave off changes in some neighborhoods, but only for a while, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually we will have to do something,\u201d Raman said. \u201cSo the question is just what do we do now and what do we do later.\u201d<\/p>\n

But council members have little time to figure out which approach they prefer. City planners told the committee that in order to have a delay ordinance in place by July 1, the council would need to decide what direction to take by early March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After California lawmakers passed a state housing law that allows taller apartment buildings near train lines, Los Angeles…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":616235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[264180,1582,276,20908,2961,224,5337,122035,264181],"class_list":["post-616234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-apartments-in-l-a","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-housing-development","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-sb-79","tag-train-stops"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116133967138015471","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}