In an effort to streamline more affordable housing, Long Beach has once again updated its Enhanced Density Bonus ordinance. These changes will allow developers greater flexibility with building height and parking requirements, granted they offer affordable units and/or community benefits.
This update aligns with the City’s most recent Inclusionary Housing Policy and aims to get Long Beach closer to meeting its Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) requirements. As of now, the City needs to build 19,806 more housing units in order to meet its RHNA goal of 26,502 by 2029.
Long Beach has to meet a certain number of units, set by the RHNA, ranging in levels of affordability. As of now, the percentage of units they have met the requirements for is as follows:
- Very low-income: 7% built
- Low-income: 12% built
- Moderate-income: 0% built
- Sub-total affordable: 6% built
- Above to moderate income: 43% built
In total, they have only built 25% of the housing they need. According to Community Development Director Christopher Koontz, if Long Beach does not “provide everything within their power to get housing built,” they can face legal penalties from the RHNA.
The City could also lose its ability to control development, have its Housing Element decertified and would be subject to a builder’s remedy, where the State would approve housing developments, not the City.
These requirements are a large part of why Long Beach decided to update its Enhanced Density Bonus.
What is the Enhanced Density Bonus?
To understand the Enhanced Density Bonus, we first need to define density. When the City talks about housing, they refer to the number of units allowed on a piece of land as its “residential density.” More dense housing means more units allowed.
Density can be expressed in two ways:
- 15 units per parcel of land
- 40 dwelling units per acre
Residential density is decided long before a project breaks ground, in the land use and zoning regulations that the City sets. Long Beach has been re-evaluating these regulations since 2019, with the updated Land Use Element and through its citywide Zone-In project.
An Enhanced Density Bonus is an optional program that allows a developer to build more units than originally allowed in exchange for providing a variety of affordable units or community benefits.
The Enhanced Density Bonus program differs from the City’s standard inclusionary housing requirements, which require a certain percentage of units to be made affordable based on where a development is built.
California introduced an enhanced density program in the 1970s, which allowed developers to apply for these bonuses anywhere in the state. Long Beach introduced its own Enhanced Density Bonus program in 2021 with the goal of increasing mixed-income and multi-family housing.
In 2022, the City adopted its most recent Housing Element, which stated its goal to increase mixed-income and affordable housing, as well as look into ways to improve its enhanced density bonus program.
The City made changes to its Enhanced Density Bonus program last year, expanding its program citywide.
Proof of further needed improvements: developers are using the State’s density bonus programs four times more often than using Long Beach’s, according to Community Development Department planner Christian Turner. Only one project using Long Beach’s density bonus program has gotten to the building stage since its adoption.
What does Long Beach’s Enhanced Density Bonus look like?
Right now, 12% of units in a proposed development have to be rented or sold under the affordable bracket in order for a developer to take advantage of the density bonus. They can then increase a development’s density (number of units) by 70-100%, depending on where in the city the units are being built and whether they are eligible for bonuses.
A developer can also get “special bonuses” in the form of more units allowed for additional amenities such as larger bedrooms that accommodate large families or on-site childcare facilities.
Changes Proposed to the City’s Enhanced Density Bonus
Projects could now be eligible for a 100% Enhanced Density Bonus regardless of where the development is being built.
Long Beach will offer bonuses for a variety of additional amenities, now including if the developer does the following:
- Builds within 1,000 feet of a park
- Removes a nuisance
- Provides senior housing
- Includes active ground floor use (not residential and community-serving)
- Adheres to higher than California labor standards
Developments that include these bonuses will be eligible to increase the amount of units by an additional 20%.
The City’s ordinance will now include extremely low-income units in its bonus and will expand on enforcement the City can take to make a project align with inclusionary housing standards. An Enhanced Density Bonus can now be reached by mixing types of affordable housing.
Developers will be able to receive waivers, or reduced zoning standards, and must be granted these waivers unless they would “pose a specific public health or safety impact, adversely affect a historic resource, or conflict with State or Federal law.”
Citywide, developments can add up to three stories to make room for additional units, though a Planning Commission approval is required for more than one story.
Samantha Diaz
Managing Editor
Samantha is an award-winning journalist, sports fanatic and mother. She’s worked for the Signal Tribune for over three years and is passionate about covering environmental news, small businesses, mutual aid efforts and resources.
