Why are we not seeing as many teardowns of shabby SFH and new townhome construction? (Los Angeles: apartments, condos)

[dozener]

In gentrifying neighborhoods in other major cities (like DC or Atlanta) this a prevalent sight. Shabby, old SFH teardowns or remodels into townhouses/tondos. Yet around LA this isn't really the case. Why is that?

[Cinema Cat]

I see a lot of tear downs and construction in Santa Monica north of Wilshire. But especially North of Montana. A lot of mega-mansions being built up there.

[V8 Vega]

In Sylmar there was a strip of land between the 210 and Foothill Blvd all this time. Now they built a lot of townhouses there so you have the freeway behind and a busy street in front. They look like apartments.

[thelopez2]

Nimby

[saybanana]

A lot of it has to do with zoning laws that each of the 80+ cities create. LA has a mixture of of lower and middle and higher density housing. They will make this area single family housing, and this area apartments and make big streets the commercial streets with all the businesses.

I haven't noticed other cities, but LA City, I have been noticing different zoning variations on residential areas. I live on an R1 which is single family. A street over is R1.5 which is a 2 family lot. And most people just build a backhouse or have a garage conversion. Then other streets are zoned for multifamily units often 1-4 floor apartments. I find these areas are where the brand new small lot homes/town homes/condos are mostly being built. I hardly see any tear downs in my gentrifying area of LA. Most likely, they are renovations/house flipping, additions to multifamily homes like a 2nd floor or extension since most of these homes were built 2-3bed/1 bath, 1200 sf or less but modern homes are closer to 2000sf for 3bed/2bath. Or people are building granny flats/garage conversions. So yes I see construction everywhere of all kinds, but you dont see too many teardowns of SFHs for townhomes unless the zoning has changed.

Sometimes I read about single family homes torn down to build large apartments, but if you look at the street there are already 10 large apartments and 3-4 single family homes left over. Koreatown is one area that I often read about these single family teardowns.

[amcap236]

Permits and red tape is a nightmare!

[looker009]

It can cost as much as 300k to get permit to build apartment building in Los Angeles. It really comes down to cost vs return on investment

[Dave Coe]

You do in areas zoned for higher density but most of those areas are close to being built up. What's insane is how much of LA near major job centers and mass transit is still zoned for single family homes. I think there was some proposal to upzone the area near the Expo rail in West LA but that will probably be blocked.

[Angelino19]

Originally Posted by dozener

In gentrifying neighborhoods in other major cities (like DC or Atlanta) this a prevalent sight. Shabby, old SFH teardowns or remodels into townhouses/tondos. Yet around LA this isn't really the case. Why is that?

In my LA neighborhood there's plenty of construction going on. Older 2 and 3 story apartments complexes and being torn down and replaced by larger 4 to 6 story apartment buildings. Also, many of the teardowns are being replaced by modern, and very attractive 2 and 3 story townhouses. On the down side of this construction boom is more traffic on our streets.

[Ceece]

Sometimes people who buy SFH's want to live in SFH's.