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Los Angeles Senior Housing guidelines for assisted living units
Los Angeles is faced with an aging population and rising demand for senior housing, L.A.'s planning department is developing zoning code guidelines for assisted living units and similar specialty developments.
The proposals under consideration would focus on commercial strips like Wilshire and Ventura boulevards, which have retail activity and access to public transportation -- features especially attractive to senior housing developers.
For developers, the attractiveness of a growing senior market has outweighed what is often a long and laborious process to get entitlements for assisted living facilities. Largely due to zoning laws that do not account for senior housing developments, Will estimated that the entitlement process in Los Angeles could take at least one-and-a-half times as long as Belmont developments in Houston or Nashville.
The guidelines would create consistent specifications for floor-to-area ratios, height limits, open space and parking requirements for the proposed developments, none of which exist in current zoning laws.
"We hope we'll have a proposal to the city planning commission in a matter of two months," said Mitchell Menzer, president of the city planning commission, who noted that the code adjustments would need to be approved by both the city council and Mayor James Hahn. "It's very important that the city has a modem, up-to-date zoning code for what is a unique residential project."
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The changes could improve the economics of these projects in a city regarded as one of the most cost-prohibitive in which to build assisted living developments.
"We want to make sure there is adequate supply of this housing type," said city Planning Director Con Howe.
The consideration of new zoning specifications comes as L.A. County's elderly population closes in on 1 million.
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More than 926,000 L.A. County residents were 65 years or older in 2000, compared with more than 855,000 in 1990, according to Census figures. Due to the different types of senior housing -- independent units, assisted living, and convalescent homes -- the city does not have data on how many units specifically serve the older population.
As a result of this growth, several developers are targeting Southern California. They include L.A.-based Reliable Properties, which will break ground on a 900,000-square-foot senior independent and assisted living project later this year; Newport Beach-based FountainGlen Properties, which is developing two senior housing projects in the Santa Clarita Valley; and Houston-based Belmont Corp., with projects in Hollywood and Encino.
"We view Los Angeles as the most under served large metropolitan area in the country," said Patricia Will, chief executive of Belmont, which broke ground on its Encino project last September, just closed escrow on a Rancho Palos Verdes site and is in escrow for a West Los Angeles site.
"It took a lot longer than other cities," added Jack Nourafshan, president of Reliable Properties, whose company has developed 60 projects, many of which are on the East Coast.
One of the changes being considered is the expansion of the standard commercial zone floor-to-area ratio of 1.5 to 1, allowing a 40,000 square foot lot to support 60,000 square feet of development. Under consideration are proposals that would increase the floor-to-area ratios to account for lower traffic generated in a senior housing facility. Belmont received FAR variances for its projects in Hollywood and Encino.
"The fact that they're willing to grant these variances is helpful," said Ben Reznik, a partner at Jeffer Mangels Butler & Marmaro LLP., who has represented several developers of senior housing, including Belmont. "But the code isn't keeping up with where the industry of senior housing is going."
By making zoning adjustments, Los Angeles would be following San Jose and San Diego, both of which have adopted set guidelines for senior housing developments in recent years.
Still, changes in zoning allowances have not been universally applauded.
With assisted living facilities potentially built in taller buildings with shorter setbacks than is permitted for commercial buildings, some neighborhood groups are raising concerns about the impact of these projects.
Diana Plotkin, president of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association, said this was a concern on La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, where lots are often shallow and back up into single-family homes.
"We do need senior housing and assisted living, but we do feel it should be exactly what the code is right now," said Plotkin. "The city needs to be very careful about what it's doing, and usually, it's not."
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