Solving our affordable housing crisis requires thoughtful, effective, and community-building solutions. We can preserve single-family homes and support paths to affordable and equitable housing for all.
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Monday, June 28, 3pm Planning Commission/City Council Meeting: Elimination of R1/Single-family zoning is on the agenda, Item A-1. This is a continuation of the June 23 meeting, which ended at 2:00 am the morning of June 24. We will post our synopsis of the June 23rd meeting shortly. Sign up to attend and speak here: Can't attend? Submit ecomments here: Meeting Agenda here: |
Culver City Council:
Do not eliminate R1/single-family zoning in Culver City.
The End of Single-Family Neighborhoods on June 23?
UPDATE!
Here’s what’s happening:
On Monday, June 28, The Culver City Council consider eliminating R1/single-family home zoning. This "upzoning" scheme was in response to an organized group that incorrectly believes eliminating single-family zoning will create affordable housing and help alleviate racial inequity in Culver City.
Their plan would allow developers and land speculators to build multiplexes on almost any single-family home lot. This plan offers no guarantees that any of the new housing will be affordable.
There is an affordable housing crisis, no doubt. However, single-family homes are not the cause. Developers who buy an R1 lot will not build affordable housing on that lot. They will build larger houses or up to 4, 6 or 8 units that will rent for top dollar. Families that would have purchased that single-family home will be priced out.
The state mandates that Culver City has a plan to add additional housing by 2029. Most of that plan is supposed to be for affordable housing. Eliminating R1 zoning will not create affordable housing. It will just create more housing. City Council can already meet – and exceed – state planning mandates with current ADU (auxiliary dwelling units) and mixed-use regulations and plans. There is no need for the City Council to make hurried, substantial, and irreversible changes to residential zoning affecting all single-family residences.
Here’s what’s happening:
On Monday, June 28, The Culver City Council consider eliminating R1/single-family home zoning. This "upzoning" scheme was in response to an organized group that incorrectly believes eliminating single-family zoning will create affordable housing and help alleviate racial inequity in Culver City.
Their plan would allow developers and land speculators to build multiplexes on almost any single-family home lot. This plan offers no guarantees that any of the new housing will be affordable.
There is an affordable housing crisis, no doubt. However, single-family homes are not the cause. Developers who buy an R1 lot will not build affordable housing on that lot. They will build larger houses or up to 4, 6 or 8 units that will rent for top dollar. Families that would have purchased that single-family home will be priced out.
The state mandates that Culver City has a plan to add additional housing by 2029. Most of that plan is supposed to be for affordable housing. Eliminating R1 zoning will not create affordable housing. It will just create more housing. City Council can already meet – and exceed – state planning mandates with current ADU (auxiliary dwelling units) and mixed-use regulations and plans. There is no need for the City Council to make hurried, substantial, and irreversible changes to residential zoning affecting all single-family residences.
TELL CITY COUNCIL: DO NOT ELIMINATE R1/SINGLE-FAMILY ZONING
You still have a short time to spread the word and express your opinions.
Write a letter/email to our City Council: city.council@culvercity.org and city.clerk@culvercity.org
Attend the June 28 City Council meeting and tell council in person/virtually.
Monday, June 28, 3pm
Planning Commission/City Council Meeting:
Elimination of R1/Single-family zoning is on the agenda, Item A-1.
This is a continuation of the June 23 meeting, which ended at 2:00 am the morning of June 24.
We will post our synopsis of the June 23rd meeting shortly.
Sign up to attend and speak here:
Can't attend? Submit ecomments here:
Meeting Agenda here:
You still have a short time to spread the word and express your opinions.
Write a letter/email to our City Council: city.council@culvercity.org and city.clerk@culvercity.org
Attend the June 28 City Council meeting and tell council in person/virtually.
Monday, June 28, 3pm
Planning Commission/City Council Meeting:
Elimination of R1/Single-family zoning is on the agenda, Item A-1.
This is a continuation of the June 23 meeting, which ended at 2:00 am the morning of June 24.
We will post our synopsis of the June 23rd meeting shortly.
Sign up to attend and speak here:
Can't attend? Submit ecomments here:
Meeting Agenda here:
Many housing experts, tenant unions and community-based activists, express concern that eliminating single-family zoning (upzoning) will bring in more wealthy tenants and homeowners. Builders with deep pockets could buy a single-family lot, build a 4-plex and offer them at the highest amount possible. These housing experts say this pro-developer scenario would incentivize the elimination of our current affordable housing stock (older R1 homes and ADUs) leaving behind current residents and the people in our community who need the most help. This plan does not guarantee affordable or low-income housing.
There are effective and creative solutions to our affordable housing crisis, including:
- Landlord incentives to make rent affordable.
- Multi-use housing/retail/office/restaurant space along commercial corridors.
- Developing commercial/industrial and underutilized spaces.
- Focusing on under-served areas in our city and promoting the allowed building of up to two ADUs on all single-family lots.
THIS is what some people are recommending. It includes upzoning the entire city. (If it seems confusing, that's because it is.)
Is this the first you've heard about this?
You're not alone. Culver City has not done adequate outreach to let you know what might happen to your neighborhood.
We DEMAND that City Council takes no action to change R1 zoning. In addition, any further action affecting zoning changes must provide all of the following:
We need true community collaboration to solve the real problem – the urgent need for effective funding strategies to help provide affordable, safe housing for people who want to live here.
With innovation and creativity, we can build on our vibrant community and help shape it into the inclusive, diverse, and welcoming city we want it to be. Together, we must try to solve the crisis with compassion, humanity, and facts.
Let’s slow down and do this right.
Culver City Neighbors United
You're not alone. Culver City has not done adequate outreach to let you know what might happen to your neighborhood.
We DEMAND that City Council takes no action to change R1 zoning. In addition, any further action affecting zoning changes must provide all of the following:
- Adequate and specific notice to all residents in the affected areas, including a postcard campaign about what these plans are about.
- Scheduled meetings, workshops, and listening sessions in neighborhoods and community centers to provide clear explanations and the ramifications of changes.
- Fact-based proof that eliminating R1 zoning will increase the availability of affordable housing, including evidence from other localities that have implemented such changes.
- Due diligence by staff and City Council to collect evidence of recent or current instances of restrictive and inequitable actions affecting zoning, mortgages, and/or banking occurring in Culver City
- Verifiable calculations of the impact on city infrastructure of any suggested zoning changes including sewer, water, electricity, parking, schools, and traffic.
We need true community collaboration to solve the real problem – the urgent need for effective funding strategies to help provide affordable, safe housing for people who want to live here.
With innovation and creativity, we can build on our vibrant community and help shape it into the inclusive, diverse, and welcoming city we want it to be. Together, we must try to solve the crisis with compassion, humanity, and facts.
Let’s slow down and do this right.
Culver City Neighbors United
Who We Are
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We're a brand new coalition of neighbors. We are a group of Culver City neighbors from all areas of the city. We are concerned about the affordable housing crisis. We believe that our city can meet the challenges of providing affordable and equitable housing for all who need it. We know that eliminating R1/single-family zoning will not solve the problem. In fact, it could make it worse.
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Take the Land-use Survey (read our primer first!)
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The City of Culver City is asking for your opinion about Land-Use in Culver City. It is important that you weigh in! The survey is about upzoning the neighborhoods!
* Before you take the survey, read our primer here. It will help you understand what you're answering.
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Articles
What's in My Backyard?
Karen Narevsky, Jacobin Magazine
Karen Narevsky, Jacobin Magazine
Dropping the Hammer on YIMBYISM
LA Tenants Union
“Yes In My BackYard” advocates a deregulatory, trickle-down framework for housing policy that does more harm than good. The thread uniting YIMBYs is that we should just “build baby build” to solve our housing crisis, despite abundant evidence — including studies by MIT academics and the Federal reserve, in addition to historical evidence from cities that have pursued this approach — showing that merely adding market-rate supply does not lead to lower housing prices, but rather spurs gentrification and displacement. By empowering the real estate industry, which has long served as a vanguard of structural racism and segregation, YIMBY policies hasten the construction of cities only accessible to the rich.
LA Tenants Union
“Yes In My BackYard” advocates a deregulatory, trickle-down framework for housing policy that does more harm than good. The thread uniting YIMBYs is that we should just “build baby build” to solve our housing crisis, despite abundant evidence — including studies by MIT academics and the Federal reserve, in addition to historical evidence from cities that have pursued this approach — showing that merely adding market-rate supply does not lead to lower housing prices, but rather spurs gentrification and displacement. By empowering the real estate industry, which has long served as a vanguard of structural racism and segregation, YIMBY policies hasten the construction of cities only accessible to the rich.
Zoning changes could put a hurt on Black homeownership
Madalyn Barber, Special to CalMatters
Madalyn Barber, Special to CalMatters
Trickle-Down Housing is a Failure. Here’s What You Need to Know.
Patrick Range McDonald, Housing is a Human Right
Patrick Range McDonald, Housing is a Human Right
Why Do Politicians Want to Take Away Homeownership from Communities of Color?
Cynthia Davis and Susie Shannon, LA Progressive
Cynthia Davis and Susie Shannon, LA Progressive
Videos
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The False Promise of Residential Infill
Re-zoning and Re-development (story of a Seattle suburb) |
United Neighbors: The Fight Against Gentrification
(explaining how SB9 and SB10 will hurt communities of color) |
