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If you drive through many areas of Los Angeles, you may notice a strange phenomenon. In front of new apartment and commercial buildings, the road widens slightly and the sidewalk snakes around potholes. If some properties on the block have recently been redeveloped, the streets can begin to look like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that widen and narrow over and over again.
That’s because new developments are often automatically required to dedicate a portion of their land to the city for road expansion, even if the roads are not congested.
In theory, these spot widenings are supposed to improve traffic flow. In practice, development occurs sporadically, and widening of lots takes away space for mature trees, parks, and sidewalks, and provides little or no congestion relief.
To make matters worse, this mandate increases housing costs unnecessarily. In an analysis of Los Angeles’ street dedication ordinance released in 2016, UCLA urban planning professor Michael Manville surveyed several developers and found that road widening costs about $11,000 to $50,000 per unit. Estimated to cost $.
“I’ve been studying city regulations for 20 years, and this is probably the stupidest regulation I’ve ever come across,” Manville said recently.
Lawmakers are finally beginning to understand that spot street widening requirements are what they are meant to be. Zombie regulations have not achieved what was intended, but they are very difficult to kill.
State lawmakers launched an effort to eradicate zombies this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill from Rep. Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) that limits local governments’ ability to require housing developers to widen roads before projects. Government agencies may require street dedication if they can demonstrate a need for it.
A Google Street View image of 1747 S. Barrington Ave. shows the road being widened in front of a new apartment building.
(Google Maps)
And this month, the Los Angeles City Council approved reforms aimed at drastically reducing the number of spot widenings. The reform, proposed two years ago, would limit the circumstances in which road widening is necessary. For example, the Department of Engineering will no longer automatically mandate spot expansions in established neighborhoods.
The council also states that changes to roads and footpaths are only required for appropriate street design, environmental reasons, or where necessary to improve the experience of pedestrians and cyclists as well as motorists. The council also adopted recommendations to change city ordinances.
That’s important. For decades, Los Angeles prioritized drivers over all other road users and vehicle speed over safety and quality of life.
The city began requiring street dedications in 1961. Even then, the Building and Safety Authority warned that spot widening would result in irregular road alignments, “resulting in disruptions to maintenance, drainage and traffic flow,” Manville said in his analysis. I’m writing inside. The idea was that the property would be continually redeveloped and the street would eventually reach a new, certain width.
Sixty-three years later, that still hasn’t happened. But builders are being ordered to cut down trees, rip up grass in parks, move streetlights and utility poles, and even reduce sidewalk space — and for what purpose? A few extra feet of asphalt that might not even be wide enough for street parking.
Additionally, there is growing recognition that wide roads encourage drivers to speed and are not ideal for safe, walkable, and pleasant roads.
Los Angeles needs more housing and safer streets. The city cannot afford to keep zombie regulations on its books that defeat these goals.
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