Los Angeles’ public transit authority is contributing more property from its vast portfolio to help alleviate the county’s affordable housing shortage.
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, also known as LA Metro, has identified 20 new redevelopment opportunities for apartments near transit stations.
The organization kicked off its joint development program in 2021 to build 10,000 homes by 2031, 5,000 of which will be income restricted. Since then, it has lined up developers for a variety of mixed-use projects, completing 140 affordable housing units in the past year alone.
“Communities are stronger when people have a diverse range of housing options, jobs, and services located near fast and frequent transit lines,” said LA Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins in a statement. “We’re doing our part to ease the housing shortage in LA County and make this region a more affordable, vibrant, and sustainable place to live.”
The 20 new properties up for development range from a parcel at the Pickle Works site at 1001 E 1st St. that can accommodate 182 units totaling 45,000 square feet to a site at the Universal City/Studio City station that can accommodate 842 units on 250,000 square feet. Locations include sites in Century City, Compton, El Segundo, Glendora, Inglewood, LaVerne and Pomona.
Los Angeles is under pressure from California to build 450,000 new housing units by 2029, half of them to be earmarked as affordable — or discounted rents reserved for individuals earning between 30% and 60% of the area median income — as part of statewide efforts to boost inventory and ease cost concerns.
Adding density
LA Metro's newest joint development project is Los Lirios, a mixed-use complex developed with affordable housing developers East Los Angeles Community Corp. and BRIDGE Housing Corp. The project opened at 111-121 S Soto St. on LA Metro-owned property in November adjacent to a station in Boyle Heights.
The five-story apartment building features 64 income-restricted homes above 2,400 square feet of retail on a 0.7- acre site that was previously used to support construction of the adjacent Metro station. The project is an example of the type of developments LA Metro wants to pursue, according to Wiggins.
In addition to the 2,600 under-construction and completed units, the program has approved more than 2,000 housing units that are pending.
Such approved projects include Centro Westlake, a planned 668-unit, mixed-use development with Walter J Company. The project will also include a 100-room hotel, office and retail space adjacent to the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro Station.
Homes built through the program are intended to have rents based on prevailing income levels and existing market rents, according to Nick Saponara, LA Metro’s executive officer of transit-oriented communities.
Sites are typically left over from construction on transit projects and serve as gateways to the vast Metro transit system, made up of 109 miles of rail service and 107 train stations in addition to 119 bus routes across a 1,447-square-mile area.
LA Metro joins other transit systems in encouraging development on unused land. San Francisco’s BART has developed more than 1,250 units so far in partnership with local officials and housing developers in recent years.
Meanwhile, the California Department of Housing and Community Development provides funds for “higher density affordable housing developments within one-quarter mile of transit stations.”