‘Gimme Shelter’: The big rezoning of Southern California is coming

By this fall, the city of Los Angeles will have to rezone to accommodate a quarter-million new homes. And most other cities across Southern California have to make similar moves to allow for a lot more construction by the same deadline.

This massive rezoning of Southern California is the result of a state law that requires cities to adequately plan for growth. Most cities so far have failed to meet the state’s rules for adding housing, so they face a quick timeline to rezone. If they don’t do it, they’ll lose out on affordable housing funding and potentially face other fines and lawsuits in the future.

On this episode of “Gimme Shelter: The California Housing Crisis Podcast,” we discuss what the rezoning rules mean for the Southland and whether they’ll end up making a difference in fixing California’s housing problems. Our guest is Kome Ajise, the head of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, an umbrella group managing the housing planning process for Los Angeles and five neighboring counties.

“Gimme Shelter,”a biweekly podcast that looks at why it’s so expensive to live in California and what the state can do about it, features Liam Dillon, who covers housing affordability issues for the Los Angeles Times, and Manuela Tobías, housing reporter for CalMatters.

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