Column: Demise of R-1 Zoning Will Lead to New Blockbusting

By Tom Elias, Columnist

Blockbusting. A technique used to encourage people to sell their property by giving the impression that a neighborhood is changing for the worse, causing property values to decline. The property is later resold at inflated prices.

Definition 2, American Heritage Dictionary

Blockbusting has not been a major force in California life since the early 1980s, when civil rights laws took hold strongly. Those laws prevented brokers from trying to scare white homeowners into selling quickly and at a loss just because a family of another race moves into a residential neighborhood, the prime definition of blockbusting.

Now a new era of blockbusting may be upon us, thanks to the landmark housing density laws passed last year, known as SB 9 and SB 10. SB 9 does away with almost all single family, or R-1, zoning by allowing all but a few residential lots to be split down the middle, with two new apartments or condominiums and an “additional dwelling unit” (grandma-style one-room structure) on each half.

So SB 9 essentially allows six housing units on virtually all lots where there now is only one, everywhere in California. Cities and counties cannot stop this. SB 10, aiming to radically densify housing near light rail transit stops or major bus routes, allows high-rise development on any lot within half a mile of those transportation features.

Neither bill requires developers to provide new parking, new water supplies, new school buildings, new parks, traffic mitigation or any other community amenity in exchange for the right to build.

Developers merely need to get control of properties they want to remake.

This is an open invitation to blockbusting, as described in Definition 2. If it happens, it will eventually lower property values in current R-1 areas at least temporarily and raise them in places where the current occupants move.

Much of this could have been prevented if a proposed initiative to take land-use decisions away from state government and give them permanently and completely to local city and county elected officials had reached this fall’s ballot and passed.

But in late February, sponsors of that putative measure, known as “Our Neighborhood Voices,” announced they’ve given up on qualifying the measure for a vote this fall and will aim instead for 2024.

“We are not stopping, we are not slowing down, we are not ever going to give up until we have restored a neighborhood voice in community planning,” went the plaintive declaration of Redondo Beach Mayor Bill Brand, a sponsor of the proposed measure.

Translation: The group saw it had neither the money nor personnel to gather enough signatures in time to qualify the measure this year. This may be because sponsors failed to raise enough cash to pay the army of petition carriers needed to get the 1 million-plus signatures now required. The number will be different, likely lower, for 2024.

It all opens the door to three years of unmitigated, virtually unregulated development, and very likely a form of blockbusting much like that described in Definition 2 above.

Here’s how that blockbusting might work:

Let’s say you own a suburban three-bedroom. two-bath house. A developer offers you $1.5 million for your home, as is (such offers have lately been common). You refuse. But your next-door neighbor to the east accepts the offer and quickly moves somewhere cheaper.

Next, developers buy the homes to your west and across the street. Now you’re surrounded, knowing you face a year or more of demolition and construction dust and noise from all sides, newly crowded streets and no possible return to the lifestyle in which you invested much of your life savings.

So you accept an offer lower than what was originally proffered. Now there will be 24 housing units where previously there were four, and original property values have dropped.

But when you try to buy in a new location, you find prices there have risen because of an influx of folks just like you.

It’s classic blockbusting, even if it’s not racially based, as blockbusting traditionally was. And it may soon become ubiquitous.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

Related Posts

Metro D Line Resumes Today After 70-Day Closure

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

The shutdown, which began May 17, enabled Metro to connect the current line to newly built tunnels extending west under...

Sunset Jazz & Pizza Series Returns to The Lobster

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

The series blends jazz from a three-piece house band with handcrafted pizzas and $5 Open Brewing beers  The Lobster’s popular...

Measles Case Confirmed in LA, Officials Urge Vaccination

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

Investigators are working to identify potential exposures and assess the risk to others Health officials have confirmed a case of...

Herbie Hancock to Headline Hollywood Bowl in August

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

Known for his decades-spanning career, Hancock is one of jazz’s forward-thinking voices Jazz legend Herbie Hancock is set to return...

LAHSA Appoints New Interim CEO Amid System Transitions

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

The agency is navigating uncertainty following the county’s decision to create a separate homelessness department and shifting federal policy priorities...

Premiere of ‘All These Women’ Coming to Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

Set in 1913, the play dramatizes the uphill struggle for the right to vote as women across the United States...

Santa Monica City Attorney to Step Down, Take New Public Role in California

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

City Council will discuss hiring a replacement at its July 29 meeting Santa Monica City Attorney Doug Sloan has announced...

LAPD to Conduct DUI Checkpoints Across City This Weekend

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

LAPD officials said checkpoint locations are chosen based on areas with high numbers of DUI-related crashes and arrests The Los...

Los Angeles Marks Milestone in Youth Sports Enrollment

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

A program has surpassed one million enrollments, providing low-cost and, in some cases, free access to youth and adaptive sports ...

In Your Time of Need, Woodlawn Cemetery is Available

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

By Susan Payne  For over 125 years, Woodlawn Cemetery, Mausoleum & Mortuary, wholly owned and operated by the city of...

Going for the throat

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

Coach Bill Schuman expects protégé Golda Zahra to hold back nothing  By Linda Chase World famous competitors hire special coaches...

Suspect Arrested in Fatal Brentwood Whole Foods Stabbing, Area to See Increased Police Presence

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

The suspect, initially described as a man in his early 20s wearing dark clothing, fled the scene on foot.  A...

(Video) Seniors Age with Dignity at Wise & Healthy Aging’s Adult Day Center

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

For More Information, Go To Wiseandhealthyaging.org/ Seniors Age with Dignity at Wise & Healthy Aging’s Adult Day Center For More...

California Reports 13% Drop in Vehicle Thefts in 2024, First Decline Since 2019

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

Southern California accounted for 53.21% of thefts, with Los Angeles County alone representing 61.83% of the region’s total California reported...

LAPD Pacific Boosters’ West LA Summer Carnival Takes Place This Weekend

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

The carnival will feature amusement rides for all ages, arcade-style games, and traditional fair food The LAPD Pacific Area Boosters...