The City of West Hollywood incorporated in 1984 with the explicit goal of enacting progressive rent control and other housing justice programs including a 20% mandatory inclusionary housing ordinance. Janet Smith-Heimer has been engaged multiple times in the past 20 years by the City to update its inclusionary program regulations along with technical support for other housing and rent stabilization policy initiatives.

 

In recent years, the State of California has greatly expanded a statewide voluntary “as of right” density bonus program if a certain amount of affordable housing is included in a proposed market rate project. The state’s density bonus program operates as a highly incentivized voluntary inclusionary housing pathway. For projects in jurisdictions with mandatory inclusionary requirements such as West Hollywood, local compliance can automatically provide the state bonus.

 

However, due to complications arising from different local AMI thresholds and related local regulations, West Hollywood’s local inclusionary program has resulted in some potential misalignment and/or unintended consequences on the ground.

 

THW was engaged in late 2024 to prepare a financial feasibility study to better align the local West Hollywood inclusionary program with state density bonus law while still maintaining the local goal of a 20% affordable unit set-aside. This work has involved several key tasks including preparation of pro formas across several zoning categories with assumptions modeling current local regulations compared to five alternative scenarios accomplishing local affordable housing goals while also meshing with the state’s framework. Several policy options were found to remain financially feasible for developers. In addition, THW convened a series of workshops with locally active residential developers and advocates, to verify financial assumptions and discuss policy options.

 

The resulting study was presented to the City’s Planning Commission and City Council in late 2025, with a follow up Council Study Session in April 2026. While some components of the preferred policy option have achieved consensus, issues remain around rules for small projects with 10 units or less. These remaining issues will be further discussed at an upcoming series of meetings in fall 2026.