Livable Communities Initiative

Solving our housing crisis while delivering the beauty and convenience of a 15-minute city

Our neighborhoods and streets reimagined

Welcome To A New LA

The MISSION of the Livable Communities Initiative is to address our housing and human dignity crisis by building housing for all Angelenos in safe, sustainable communities.

 

The Vision

Livable Communities Initiative is a plan to address our housing crisis by building homes as fast as possible, and at far less cost, while making the city beautiful at the same time. We do this by combining Gentle Density and walkable Complete Streets along our commercial corridors to create lovely, livable communities with deeply affordable and dignified car-light housing options for all Angelenos who wish to live this way.

Imagine Our Commercial Corridors Transformed

From this…

Westwood Boulevard Before

To this…at no cost to the city.

Westwood Boulevard After

  • Gentle, human-scale housing development: 3-5 stories

  • Walkable Complete Streets for car-light living

  • Nearby residential neighborhoods preserved and enhanced


  • beautiful, green, calm streets with wide sidewalks and a tree canopy

    Beautiful, Green, Calm Streets

    With wide sidewalks and a tree canopy


  • Amenities within walking distance, access to al fresco dining, shops and yoga studios

    Amenities Within Walking Distance

    Access to al fresco dining, shops and yoga studios


  • Access to transportation, Safe bike lanes, access to high-quality transit and car share, slower and fewer cars

    Access to Transportation

    Safe bike lanes, access to high-quality transit and car share, slower and fewer cars

The Plan

The PLAN is to cut through red tape to unleash a market for mom-and-pop owners to create affordable and moderate-income housing above their commercial properties in the same way that streamlining unleashed a new market for homeowners to build Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).

  • Streamline city agencies

  • Eliminate fees and parking minimums

  • Rezone “by right” to eliminate frivolous lawsuits and years of delays

This creates a low-risk environment for small owners to build small, affordable units for those who want a walkable, car-free life. 

 The Impact

  • Build affordable housing at one-third the cost and one-quarter the time without public tax dollars

  • Benefit nearby homeowners with a beautiful walkable street, shops and cafes, and access to transit and bike lanes

  • Give every Angeleno the option of an affordable home without the $8000/year cost and burden of a car

  • Bring down rents across the region by ending the housing scarcity that artificially drives up prices

  • Create attainable homeownership opportunities that can help close the racial wealth gap

  • Reverse-engineer displacement by building in high-opportunity neighborhoods that have not built enough housing 

  • Address climate change by building car-light infill homes, 48 miles of transit-connected bike lanes, new bus lanes, and 48 miles of new tree canopy

  • Create a model for a Complete Street transformation that can be available to all communities  

 

Learn More

 
 

WHAT YOU CAN DO

We hope to inspire our leaders to bring the city together with a shared vision that benefits all Angelenos. Through our early activism, the LCI has already been included in the Housing Element (the city’s plan to build housing). But we still need to lobby our City Council members to support streamlining and rezoning. And we must urge our State representatives to cut the red tape so cities can immediately access the Complete Street funding that already exists. We recognize this is a crisis and an emergency for our city and our planet. The question for us and our elected officials is: What are we waiting for?

SIGN UP TO ADD YOUR SUPPORT 

Let’s create a more livable city for everyone.


 ENTER THE DESIGN COMPETITION

The LCI is calling for submissions that will re-imagine LA’s under-utilized commercial corridors as Complete Streets with gently urban, “Human Scale”housing that supports a range of family structures, sizes and incomes.

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