California Strip Malls To be Upzoned Saturday

The big housing victory of the 2022 California legislative session will finally take affect this Saturday, June 1st of 2023. As I broke down when it passed, AB 2011 will allows the plentiful parking lots and strip malls — which make up much of California’s landscape — to be converted into 4 - 6 story multifamily housing. AB 2011 explicitly overrides local zoning ordinances to allow for housing with extremely swift approvals and no parking requirements. Its quasi-competitor and twin law, SB 6, also takes effect on Saturday which was the product of the big union compromise last year.

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Private developers have not made much noise about AB 2011 and SB 6 as the Building Industry Association doesn’t like the labor requirements in either. But they’ll likely realize the advantages of the quick streamlining and security being offered as they often do with big rezoning plans. Especially with the growth of vacant commercial properties in every single city as e-commerce empties out parking lots and malls, from pharmacies to department stores. Nonprofit developers will probably immediately start trying to entitle projects on any commercial parcels they have the funds to acquire, as wide swaths of California are opened up to low income housing.

An analysis by the mapping company Urban Footprint concluded that AB 2011 under current market conditions will likely result in 1.6 million to 2.4 million more homes, including 300,000 to 400,000 low income homes. AB 2011 is estimated to reduce water consumption by 40% and a 45% reduction in carbon emissions from new population growth that would otherwise live in suburban sprawl.

On Saturday, California will mark its largest move away from the mid-20th century automotive age and into the future of transit-oriented urbanism. Ironically, many of the homes to be built on these commercial strips in places like Los Angeles were themselves housing a half-century ago.