Long Beach will host series of meetings to educate people on housing policies

The City of Long Beach will host three public meetings in August and September focused on housing and zoning policy with the intent to inform the community and gain resident input. 

Residents can learn about initiatives the City has been discussing with the goals to grow housing production, increase housing affordability, reduce tenant displacement and attract innovative developments in high-resource areas. 

“We want to invite the public into these important conversations, so that they can be a part of the process,” said Mayor Rex Richardson in a public statement. “These innovative policy proposals, introduced in May, will help Long Beach families find stable housing through increased production and enhanced tenant protections. From assisting community members experiencing homelessness with access to housing, to opening up the dream of homeownership to a young family, we can address the multifaceted housing needs of our diverse city.”

These policies are part of the sixth cycle of Long Beach’s Housing Element, crafted by the Community Development Department to help the City reach its housing goals. Some of these goals are state mandates, while others intend to help Long Beach lead the way in affordable housing and housing production. 

Residents, community partners and stakeholders can learn about these policies and provide input at these three upcoming forums:

• Saturday, Aug. 24 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. – Houghton Park Community Center, 6301 Myrtle Ave.
• Wednesday, Aug. 28 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. – Long Beach Energy Resources Auditorium, 2400 Spring St. 
• Thursday, Sept. 12 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. – McBride Park Community Center, 1550 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.

To learn more and RSVP to attend one of the forums, visit the Housing Policies webpage. Interpretation will be provided in Spanish and other languages by request. 

Feedback garnered at these meetings will help further the development of several housing policy initiatives being evaluated by the City, such as:  

• Inclusionary Housing Policy: Building on the successful inclusionary housing program in Downtown and parts of Central Long Beach, staff are proposing to expand the Inclusionary Housing requirement citywide. With this enhancement, all future housing developments with 10 or more units anywhere in the city would be required to include affordable housing units in otherwise market-rate housing developments.
• Zone In: This is a citywide effort to update zoning regulations through land use reforms to better meet community needs consistent with recent General Plan updates. More information will be available on the various rezoning efforts happening throughout the City.

• Religious Facility Overlay: Many churches, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship have extra land or underutilized buildings that could be used for housing. The City’s Religious Facility Overlay will build upon state law SB 4 and expand new housing opportunities on religious and institutional sites citywide including in high resource areas.  
• Downtown Plan and Downtown Shoreline Plan Updates: Land use regulations are being updated for the City’s Downtown and Waterfront, where more than 5,000 new housing units have been approved and substantial investment has taken place over the past decade. This update process will sculpt the coming decades of growth and innovation in Downtown and will assure access to economic and recreational opportunities for residents across the city.
• Just Cause Ordinance Update: The City prohibits landlords from evicting tenants unless the landlord has a reason listed in the law to do so. These proposed policy changes would further strengthen tenant protections and prevent displacement of existing residents, as well as increase the relocation assistance amount for all evictions due to no-fault just causes.  
• Omnibus Housing Code Update: Batching minor but important amendments to zoning regulations into one Omnibus update better facilitates housing and homeless service uses. This effort implements commitments made in the City’s Housing Element and adopts lessons learned from the 2023-24 City’s homeless emergency provisions.  
• Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) and Senate Bill 9 (SB 9) Initiative: The City is a leader in ADU production, and this update hopes to facilitate further growth and assure that future ADUs and SB 9 units meet high community standards. This legally mandated update also includes design guidelines that are available to help homeowners design their best possible housing solutions.
• Housing Element Mid-Cycle Equity Analysis: This mid-term check in measures the City’s progress on implementing its Housing Element commitments, with a focus on addressing documented fair housing disparities across different areas of the city. The analysis will begin later this year and the results will be presented to the Long Beach City Council, keeping the City on track to meeting its objectives by Fall 2025.  

To request more information about these amendments and policy initiatives, please email the Community Development Department at CDHousingPolicy@longbeach.gov.