The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved two major zoning plans for downtown and Hollywood that, if successful, would create as many as 135,000 new homes.

houses

to those areas in the next 20 years.

The municipality, at 13

Unpleasant

0 vote, approved the DTLA 2040 plan, which aims to attract 100,000 new housing units in an area stretching from the Convention Center east to the Arts District and north to Chinatown, more than a fifth of the estimated need throughout the city. In a second 13

Unpleasant

With 0 votes, the council approved the long-delayed update to the Hollywood Community Plan, which should create capacity for 35,000 new units.

The city must regularly update each of the city’s 34 community plans, which map out where and how to build new apartments, office towers and other projects. The council last updated its Hollywood plan about a decade ago, only to see that document struck down by a judge.

Council President Paul Krekorian said plans for downtown and Hollywood

have had

“undoubtedly the two hardest” in town.

“This is going to be incredibly important to the economic development of the city, its future and our housing that meets our housing needs,” he said.

Both planning documents, drafted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, will provide new safeguards to prevent displacement, city officials said. Both contain new strategies to encourage the construction of affordable apartment complexes, where at least some of the units have rent

those are

below market price. Those units should remain affordable for 99 years.

In Hollywood, developers of properties on some of the city’s busiest boulevards, such as Hollywood, Sunset and Cahuenga, will be allowed to build much larger buildings than otherwise allowed if they include a percentage of affordable units in their projects.

In downtown, the council approved an “inclusive” housing system, requiring newly built housing projects to contain at least a percentage of affordable units. In many cases, developers would be allowed to make their projects bigger, as long as they include a larger number of affordable units, planning officials said.

The inclusion requirements do not apply in cases where office buildings or production space are converted into housing.

The municipality also opened the door to housing development in a section of skid row bounded by 5th Street to the north, 7th Street to the south, San Pedro Street to the west, and Central Avenue to the east. However, developers should still be building projects in that area

That

are affordable for at least 80%, a threshold that is much higher than in other parts of the city center.

Wednesday’s vote delivered the

Garment Worker Center, that

had been fighting for new regulations to ensure that sewing factories and other clothing-related businesses are not displaced by new developments. That group, which belonged to a coalition that included Unite Here Local 11, the politically powerful hotel workers’ union, won new restrictions on housing and new hotels in parts of the Fashion District.

Business groups warned that these changes would economically bring up to 12,000 housing units in the DTLA 2040 plan

unfeasible

,

unfeasible,

at least for the foreseeable future. That, in turn, will make it more difficult for the center to meet the goal of 100,000 new units, said Anthony Rodriguez, executive director of the Fashion District Business Improvement District.

“I’m just not sure how they’re going to find developers interested in building new homes” in much of the Fashion District, he said.

The Garment Worker Center celebrated the council’s vote, calling DTLA 2040 a “reasonable compromise” that does not prioritize jobs over housing. “We clearly need both,” says Marissa Nuncio, the group’s director. The council unanimously agreed to examine the effects of the plan on housing production in the Fashion District in the coming weeks.

Council member Kevin de Len applauded

new measures

to protect manufacturing jobs, garment workers and hotel workers say “hold on to a little bit, not knowing if they’ll be evicted from their homes.”

The Len

said the center is doing more to address the housing crisis than any other part of the city, in part by establishing an inclusive zoning plan.

“We’re not just talking about building inclusive communities, we’re actually walking the walk,” he said. “Because if we really want to be a forward-thinking city, we can’t just theorize or tweet about it. We really need to do something about it that’s real and tangible.”

Councilor Marqueece Harris-Dawson, head of the council’s planning committee, also praised the plan’s focus on developing new limited-rent apartments. not done this job,” he said. “The market wouldn’t have produced that.”

Two of the newest members of the council Eunisses Hernandez and Hugo Soto-Martinez also made their mark on the community plans. Hernandez reversed an attempt by her predecessor, Councilman Gil Cedillo, to lift height restrictions in part of Chinatown. The council approved its request to maintain a five-story height limit on portions of Hill Street, Broadway and other nearby corridors.

For his part, Soto-Martinez increased the need for affordable housing

those are

included in a new stimulus program targeting some of Hollywood’s busiest commercial districts.

Under the plan, housing developers in those areas would have the right to construct 30,000 square feet of building for every 10,000 square feet of lot. If they meet the city’s new affordable housing requirements, they would be allowed to construct 67,500 square feet of buildings for every 10,000 square foot lot.

Those developers should reserve between 11% and 25% of their apartments for lower-income households, depending on the affordability levels they select.

“This is just the beginning,” Soto-Martinez said. “So much work is going to happen in the next few years to make this city fair, just, and good for working people.”