If you are the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and you own excess land next to a transit line that you've just recently built, one possible option could be to give this land to a non-profit housing developer so that they can build some affordable housing. And this is exactly what was agreed to in 2007 with the Lorena Plaza site in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of LA. The proposal: 49 affordable units geared toward people making 50% of the AMI.

However, like all things in development, things do take time. And when building new 4-storey housing complexes, there is always the real possibility that you might face several years (or longer) of fierce opposition. In the case of Lorena Plaza, it apparently took the developers from 2013 to 2020 to reach a settlement with the local councilman and their immediate neighbor (a commercial plaza). In the end, this project is now expected to occupy next summer (2024), which brings the total project timeline to 17 years.

This is probably an extreme example and, thankfully, some of the rules have since been changed to help speed up projects like this one. Still, it is no wonder we can't build enough new housing. (Los Angeles wants to build some 450,000 new homes by 2029.) Time isn't free.

If you are the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and you own excess land next to a transit line that you've just recently built, one possible option could be to give this land to a non-profit housing developer so that they can build some affordable housing. And this is exactly what was agreed to in 2007 with the Lorena Plaza site in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of LA. The proposal: 49 affordable units geared toward people making 50% of the AMI.

However, like all things in development, things do take time. And when building new 4-storey housing complexes, there is always the real possibility that you might face several years (or longer) of fierce opposition. In the case of Lorena Plaza, it apparently took the developers from 2013 to 2020 to reach a settlement with the local councilman and their immediate neighbor (a commercial plaza). In the end, this project is now expected to occupy next summer (2024), which brings the total project timeline to 17 years.

This is probably an extreme example and, thankfully, some of the rules have since been changed to help speed up projects like this one. Still, it is no wonder we can't build enough new housing. (Los Angeles wants to build some 450,000 new homes by 2029.) Time isn't free.