Downtown LA 2040 Incentive Zoning System
City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning (LADCP)
HR&A worked with the Los Angeles Department of City Planning to design a comprehensive incentive zoning system for Downtown Los Angeles as part of the DTLA 2040 Downtown Community Plan update, creating a three-tier framework that balances development feasibility with public benefits and will generate affordable housing, public open space, and community facilities while establishing clear expectations for future growth.
Los Angeles needed a streamlined approach to delivering affordable housing and other community benefits that could address both market realities and community priorities as the city updated its Central City and Central City North Community Plans. The existing regulatory framework created uncertainty for developers and community stakeholders alike, lacking the consistency and predictability necessary to deliver meaningful public benefits while supporting the area’s development goals. HR&A responded by preparing recommendations that built on analysis of successful precedents from other cities anddetailed financial feasibility studies for more than a dozen prototypical development projects. This allowed the team to calibrate the costs and benefits of various incentive structures and fine-tune affordable housing requirements at each program tier.
The resulting density bonus and Transfer of Floor Area Ratio system provides a clear pathway for developers to access additional development capacity while ensuring that growth delivers tangible community benefits including affordable housing, historic preservation, childcare facilities, and other benefits. HR&A’s financial analysis created a framework that maintains development viability while maximizing public value, establishing a model that other cities can adapt for their own incentive zoning programs. The DTLA 2040 plan will create 70,000 new housing units and 55,000 new jobs by 2040, constituting 20 percent of the entire city’s household growth in just 1 percent of its land area.
