In 1999, the city council of Los Angeles declared that vacant structures would heretofore be named "public nuisances." The council opined that these structures threaten public safety and attract vagrants, gang members, and other criminals as prime locations to conduct illegal activities. A new Ordinance, "Abatement of Vacant Buildings." was enacted in 1999.
However, the "Abatement of Vacant Buildings Ordinance" states that only the city can allow these buildings to be demolished.
Thus, a 25-year-old stalemate between property owners and the city over the right to demolish and rebuild 3,000 vacant multi-family residential buildings declared public nuisances is in limbo. Buildings, like people, have a habitable life. In the building world, the rule of thumb is 75 years.
The " Abatement of Vacant Buildings Ordinance" must be amended to automatically allow a property owner to demolish 75-year-old structures and build new ones that are the equivalent of current housing stock. By making this one small adjustment to the Ordinance, the data shows that thousands of new workforce housing units will flood the market within two years. Considering that millions of taxpayer dollars go into building affordable housing units that are off-limits to most of the workforce, giving the private sector the tools it needs to build workforce housing for the rest of us is the right thing to do.
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