Policy in Practice: Expanding Housing in West Hollywood

Long a haven for creative communities, the city has also nurtured a legacy of progressive housing design. With landmarks such as the Schindler House (1922) and modernist homes from the 1950s and 1960s, West Hollywood was a staging ground for architects to challenge conventions and develop new models of multi-family housing in tandem with an evolving social landscape. 

In recent years, the area has surged in popularity, making the effects of the housing crisis facing greater Los Angeles acutely felt in West Hollywood. Over the past decade, the city has received a disproportionate allocation of development to keep up with the demand for housing. Nearly 80% of the 26,000 homes are renter-occupied, and lower-income residents are disproportionately subject to the cost burdens of housing expenses. 

The Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA), a State-mandated process designed to address housing needs across cities and affordability levels, charts roadmaps for jurisdictions to plan for housing in ways that account thoroughly for availability, affordability, and quality of life. The RHNA process helps cities determine the number of new housing units, allocation methodologies, and necessary zoning updates needed in order to fulfill each city’s eight-year Housing Element cycle.

This multi-pronged process is complex and laden with regulations and technicalities that render the lived crises of housing into text and numbers. But despite the recent heightened treatment of housing as a commodity, it remains that housing is a fundamental right–one that critically shapes the fabric of our daily lives and communities. In striving to address these urgent issues across scales and processes, how can design understand and improve the lived experience of housing in order to create a more just and sustainable city? How can the big picture account for these necessary large-scale changes without losing sight of the interconnected elements–both qualitative and quantitative–that form the character of urban life?  

As part of their Sixth Housing Element Cycle, which runs from 2021 to 2029, the City of West Hollywood enlisted Sasaki to help determine how to adapt zoning regulations to better meet the needs for housing stock, while striving to improve design quality across the full spectrum of housing types and contexts. 

Given the firm’s commitment to bringing different voices to the table, and its capacity to traverse scales ranging from complex urban systems to individual buildings, the task was a daunting yet natural fit for Sasaki’s team of architects and planners. By analyzing State- and City-wide policies and interpreting zoning codes while taking stock of the real-world impact on WeHo residents, our work centers on building a full, robust perspective of the housing landscape of the city in order to plan meaningfully for the future. 

The first phase of the project, which began in the fall of 2024, focused on conducting baseline analysis of existing land use patterns and zoning, as well as local housing typologies and recent market and development trends. Due to the neighborhood appeal of West Hollywood, the number of developments in the prior cycle vastly exceeded projected values. Recognizing the limited availability of land and the changed economic conditions, our research focused on how development standards for zoning and incentive programs could be adapted to accommodate targeted, sensitive infill in low-density sites rather than calling for sweeping development across the board. 

Studies of State legislation beyond the Housing Element process also helped provide additional regulatory context to take into account. Newer laws such as AB 2097, which prohibits cities from imposing minimum parking requirements on new developments within a half-mile radius of a transit stop, are particularly salient in West Hollywood, where nearly all of the city falls under the parameters of this legislation.

State mandates, in their breadth and general character, can be challenging to translate to more localized contexts with distinct needs. Sasaki’s process focused on understanding the unique conditions of West Hollywood to adapt these mandates to be more suitable for the city’s local context, taking stock of single and multi-family typologies to propose models that meaningfully integrate with the city’s existing housing landscape and enhance the lived experiences of long-term residents and newcomers alike.

These findings laid the groundwork for Phase 2, which centered on developing zoning alternatives scenarios that could expand upon existing processes without disrupting the distinct urban identity of West Hollywood. Test fits were carried out in different low, medium, and high-density commercial and residential zones to determine feasibility and illustrate models of contextually sensitive additions. Rezoning recommendations focused on strategies for encouraging more density and affordability through bonus programs and upzoning.

Sasaki’s team also looked at existing commercial areas and identified underutilized sites as potential areas for encouraging mixed-use development, as well as targeting transit hubs–including new transit stops in West Hollywood proposed as part of the K Line light rail extension–as meaningful areas to increase density and amenities. Policy recommendations looked to lower barriers to home ownership by promoting ADU development and reducing restrictions to small-scale development.

After the culmination of Phase 2 in June 2025, the team continued to share findings with the public and solicit feedback through community workshops in the fall. Recommendations are being refined in preparation for a final report to be delivered to the West Hollywood City Council in 2026.  

Across each phase, the expertise of planners who navigate high-level policy is tightly integrated with the work of architects who test the viability of housing models within specific urban contexts. This multi-pronged approach underscores the importance of an integrated residential planning process, wherein strategies for greater density are implemented in tandem with a deep understanding of how these developments mesh with the existing fabric of a city, all while prioritizing high-quality, contextually tailored, housing design. “By considering how resources–economic, environmental, and quality of life–are used more mindfully and meaningfully,” associate principal Ian Dickenson reflects, “we can build intentionality into every step of the process.”