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2016 Election: No on Measure JJJ

By Editorial Board

Nov. 3, 2016 3:02 a.m.

The board does not endorse Measure JJJ, which would require developers to make a percentage of projects larger than nine units affordable to low-income and working residents.

That’s not to say there isn’t a serious problem with affordability. California – and Los Angeles especially – is notorious for its unaffordable housing. Last year, a Harvard University report found that almost a third of renters in LA and Orange Counties spent more than half their income on rent. The problem is concentrated in lower- and middle-income renters, who are increasingly forced to leave the city or stay in poorer conditions.

But Measure JJJ is the wrong approach to this problem. If the initiative is approved, developers will need to set aside 20 percent of larger projects with units for rent and 40 percent of larger projects with units for sale for lower-income tenants – or pay a fee to stimulate affordable housing elsewhere.

The excessive regulations this measure imposes would do little to improve housing affordability. If approved, the initiative would effectively greenlight projects that surpass height and density regulations in the city’s general plan if the developers reserve units for affordable housing and contract unionized workers. Currently, developers are required to go through a formal exemption process before pursuing large-scale projects. The initiative also disincentivizes developers from building smaller construction projects.

Instead of trying to force affordable housing through draconian measures like JJJ, the city needs to properly incentivize developers to develop more housing units and bring prices back down to earth.

In 2015, LA’s housing market only grew by 12,000 units, despite a population increase of 50,000. The Los Angeles Times estimated the city would have had to build more than a million more units over the past 30 years in order to keep up with housing prices nationwide. That won’t happen under JJJ.

These circumstances are increasingly intolerable. As a city, LA needs to be developing more rapidly and more responsibly, with safeguards for middle and low income residents, but it needs to happen without overburdening developers with regulations that will only further stifle new units from going up.

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