Creating walkable neighborhoods across L.A.

Transforming urban sprawl into a web of vibrant communities

BEFORE

pretty street with bicyclist and pedestrians

AFTER

What is a ‘Livable Community’?

A Town Center vision

Holistic Solution

A Livable Community combines housing, retail, and street changes along one street to create a charming, walkable street with high-quality naturally-affordable housing built over small retail — so you can walk outside and get all your daily and weekly errands done. Now imagine a network of these streets across LA.

How is this different?
3 Key Elements all in the same place

Cities across the USA have plans to add bike lanes, widen sidewalks, and add housing near transit, the LCI combines these along one street that directly touches a transit stop or job center – so the street becomes a safe and inviting connection to transit and work. LCI is also about quality – quality streets that are charming and vibrant, with lovely architecture, bright and airy apartments, trees and bistro lights, and retail that activates the street (no big box stores or dim spaces). This creates a ‘Town Center’ that can be a hub for the neighborhood – to come shop, linger, and stroll; and with community events like a farmers markets, movie nights, and community dance parties. The LCI is not a plan to just build housing – it’s a plan to build a community for everyone.

HIGH QUALITY HOMES

Airy bright apartments, leafy courtyards, residential-over-retail, 3-5 stories of charming architecture.

CHARMING LOCAL SHOPS

Ground floor retail that serves daily and weekly needs such as grocery stores, pharmacies, coffee shops. No big box stores.

WALKABLE AND BEAUTIFUL

The sidewalks, the streets, the bike lanes and spaces all come together to make a livable, walkable, beautiful community.

LOCATIONS FOR TOWN CENTERS

Where in LA?

LA has thousands of miles of low-quality commercial corridors. We can transform them into high-quality, leafy, inviting and vibrant streets lined with local retail and residential housing above while incentivizing every parcel owner on the street to build. A few hundred miles would be the equivalent of LA’s housing and home ownership deficit.

CAR-LIGHT, NOT CAR-LESS

What about parking?

In a car-dependent city like LA, the most frequent question when it comes to housing is: ‘what about parking?’ There’s a solution!

The LCI building typology of residential-over-small-retail doesn’t physically accommodate parking. Affordability would be lost if it did because parking-lots-in-housing raises rents up to $800/month.

Our design comes from a highly successful redevelopment in Lancaster, CA added a ‘Parking Ramblas’ and solves three issues at once: slowing cars, adding trees and shade, and providing parking for visitors, shoppers, residents’ cars/car-share and EV charging, ADA, work vehicles.

Why can’t we have this?

Current Rules Incentivize…

Windowless rooms. Limited airflow. No residential + retail. Car-dependency. No outdoor space.

Updated Rules Incentivize

Naturally affordable and sustainable homes. High quality architecture. Bright and airy rooms. Courtyards of safe green space. Retail serving daily and weekly needs.

How do we make it happen?

A STREAMLINING STRATEGY

Change the rules, speed the process

Our state and local government officials need to implement a few changes that reduce the cost and time to build, improve the street and transit, and incentivize the neighborhoods we want.

Why is LCI the way forward?

A COMPLETE, SIMPLE PLAN

Synergy surpasses piecemeal approaches

This approach solves the affordable housing crisis, combats our ever-increasing traffic troubles, and addresses the climate crisis by making a few essential changes ALL AT ONCE.

Resources

Comprehensive research

Read the LCI Mobility Plan

Our peer-reviewed paper explains how the LCI plan addresses our traffic, housing and climate crises

Would you want to live in a ‘Livable Community’?

Sign your name if you or someone you know would want to live in a Livable Community:

Culver City becomes first city in California to adopt Single Stair buildings!

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