What! This is in Long Beach??

Were these design standards written by a drop of water trying to get inside?

Under LA's new "Objective Design Standards" for historic districts, the building on the left would be prohibited, and the building on the right would be encouraged

LA's new proposed "objective design standards" for historic districts are horrific. They're going to result in it essentially being illegal for new buildings to match the historic character of these districts.

It's interesting that, with the exception of the ballroom, the "return to Classicism" in Federal architecture is really verging on New Formalism

not really fourth of july content but i found thus explanation of affordable housing financing in DC very informative.

Apparently @mhdcd8.bsky.social gave a speech a few weeks ago where he acknowledged that the old immiserating the young is a sad but necessary evil. Progress!

Compare LA's 1930 zoning map to 2026: - Areas that were not-yet-zoned in 1930 were predominately added as single-family - Most of the downzoning to R1 that occurred was in South LA or NE LA

In honor of SB 79 going into effect yesterday, I spent 6 hours compiling LA's 1930 zoning map

A housing typology that only exists in Los Angeles: the 36-bedroom triplex

Big developments in Sacramento's zoning code! -No bulk control(!) -Unlimited units. -45ft heights/FAR 2.0 within 1/2 mile of transit, 35ft/FAR 1.0 elsewhere. -15 ft front setbacks. -Staff approvals. And... that's it. The most ambitious reform anywhere. housesac.substack.com/p/the-promis...

The fact that this deal was announced immediately after Kennedy Wilson was bought by an insurance company is likely no coincidence. Fairfax is essentially doing vertically-integrating tax reduction through LIHTC, cutting out the middleman.

Jamison (the largest developer in LA) and Kennedy Wilson ($28 billion AUM, purchased by Fairfax 2 weeks ago) have announced a joint effort to build 4,000 new units of subsidized-affordable housing in Los Angeles, primarily through office-to-residential conversions www.latimes.com/business/sto...

An amazing 3BR/1.5BA, 1050sf small lot home plan posted by @bobbyfijan.bsky.social on Twitter

One street in this neighborhood is zoned multifamily. Half of the parcels on the street have been redeveloped in the past five years. Surely there's nothing to learn here.

Hey! I'm excited to elect Nithya Raman as LA's next mayor, and I'd encourage anyone to contribute to her campaign before the month ends. If you're an LA resident, donations up to $257 will be matched by the city six-to-one, turning into $1,542. www.nithyaforthecity.com

SB 79 goes into effect on Wednesday. Here’s what you can build in the City of Los Angeles 🧵⬇️

I wrote a very long post about the meaning of a "housing shortage" for Twitter. It'd be a bit hard to format it for Bsky, so you can read it here: xcancel.com/CohenSite/st...

Let's see just this month we've got... 1) ensuring basic infrastructure spending remains at 1996 levels 2) completely biffing the charter reform process 3) orchestrating a supposed backroom deal which ended up reaffirming Prop 13 Howard Jarvis would be so proud

Hate to do a “told you so,” but… So many people didn’t believe me when I said there was no chance the street light assessment would pass

On Monday HCD told SCAG they were wrong and the map will be changed to add Eastside E Phase 2 to Whittier, K North, and Sepulveda.

Los Angeles’ 2026 housing permitting numbers have been a roller coaster. On the surface, it looks like really good news: in the first six months of 2026, LA permitted more apartment units than the ENTIRETY of 2024 or 2025…

I'm trying to figure out some easy ways to understand and convey the pricing signals that (should) relate to urban planning.

This is a really cool historical listing. Built in 1935, it's part of the remnants of the Sugar Hill neighborhood, a wealthy, predominantly Black enclave that was destroyed for the construction of the 10 Freeway

I can't believe this house is only $1.2 Million

It's pretty wild that active negotiations appear to be happening in public on Twitter right now about the ULA compromise legislation

I get the adage “sex sells,” but I’m not sure that applies to Sketchers slip-on shoes…

The trick for going out when you live on the Westside is to stay out late enough that the Metro is running again

At this point, I’m not sure there are any human drivers on the road in LA after midnight

My dad just asked me if the World Cup was Soccer or Formula One...

I’m not sure anything encapsulates LA and the Would Cup more than the conga line going around this brewery, celebrating Mexico’s defeat of Korea, being led by a Korean guy

Huge news: LA is proposing allowing an additional 3' in height for state-override multifamily ADUs!

I have an idea that I've wanted to do that I haven't been able to get out of my head for years, but to accomplish it, I'd first need to buy the Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim. (if anyone has any ideas on how to do that, please let me know)

A 10-year ULA exemption for new-construction multifamily and mixed-use is moving forward. It will still need another vote to get on the ballot, but to my understanding, the terms are now locked in place

I'm not sure I've ever seen this vote split before. Blumenfield, Hutt, Jurado, McOsker, Raman, Rodriguez, Yaroslavsky, and Harris-Dawson, vs Hernandez, Lee, Nazarian, Padilla, Park, Price, and Soto-Martinez

There are changes to the next National Electrical Code that will right-size the panel requirements (something about simultaneous load assumptions). I tried to convince CBIA to support an effort to make an exception in the code freeze to adopt it early, and was unsuccessful.

I’m at a random Chipotle in El Segundo, and Iran’s soccer team’s bus just drove past

RIP Oliver Tree youtu.be/7CLUzGsnSA8?...

This was the CEQA EIR for Playa Vista "We wanted a bulletproof EIR. Bulletproof EIR meant if you fired a bullet at one end of the document, it can't come out the other end" - LA City Councilmember Ruth Galanter

This was the original Maguire Thomas plan. It switched from mixed heavily commercial to primarily residential, but still planned to develop some of the wetlands.

This was the original master plan for Playa Vista, which I don't think has been published online before (except in a video, which is where I got this screenshot from)

One of the single-family zone ED 1 projects that Mayor Bass killed in 2023 is now back as an SB 1123 project with 5 single-family homes + 5 ADUs (The original ED 1 proposal was for 114 affordable units)

Perhaps the most surprising thing that's come out of LA Charter Reform is broad council support for reducing land-use discretion

All the controversies over Mayor Bass' ED 1 obscure the big headline: it's a hugely successful program that has already led to thousands of affordable apartments built at zero taxpayer expense, and it's just getting started. A 🧵:

oWOW, the Oakland-based mass timber developer, is publicly claiming to have hit $243/gsf for their latest 284-unit 11-story project. Incredibly impressive if accurate

When I went to return my rental car yesterday, I forgot to refuel The Enterprise associate told me not to worry, I was marked down for pre-paid gas... At $5 a gallon! (a full dollar cheaper than the cheapest nearby gas station) Some days you just get incredibly lucky

1. Your city council members do not even know that their building officials are going to this thing called the ICC and voting on code changes that will eventually make it into law.

Yeah, I'm still annoyed that they include density bonus projects. Here's the most accurate chart.

New CHIP developments filed in the last year in LA are overwhelmingly providing less than 1 parking space per unit.

It seems like Planning should be making changes to the MIIP program, because most projects are choosing the State Density Bonus over MIIP