10K PACOIMA

Pacoima, in the northeast San Fernando Valley, exemplifies the LA region’s housing shortage. Much of the community is zoned for single-family residential development, but high real estate prices and dense population have led to an extreme shortage of affordable housing. Like all communities, there are infill sites scattered throughout Pacoima. However, unique to this community, there are over a thousand extra-large single-family lots of more than 10,000 square feet (nearly twice the size of an average Los Angeles residential lot). After much study, design, and community interaction, we’ve invented a feasible way to provide for-sale, workforce infill housing in the "backyards" of existing residential sites. We are constructing design, development, and finance strategies for the 10K sites. This will result in (1) a pilot demonstration project to be constructed in Pacoima, (2) policy recommendations to revise existing approval processes and zoning policies to support quality infill development, (3) the design of three green housing models to serve as templates for development, and (4) collaboratively-shaped development scenarios for typical sites.

This project aims to develop innovative, environmentally sensitive, and affordable solutions to the regional housing shortage.  It responds to the significant need to revise those planning and zoning practices that reflect our region’s sprawling past rather than the needs of and opportunities within each of our unique communities.  The multi-disciplinary project team includes the community organization Pacoima Beautiful, ICON, senior staff from the LA Planning Department, Council District 7, the CRA, for-profit and non-profit developers, and staff and graduate student researchers at UCLA's cityLAB.

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