PropX // Inventing the next LA

Invited competition

Collaborators: (planners) Ashley Atkinson, Sandra Goff, Sing-Yee Lucy Lin, Sung Jin Park, Li Wu,(architect) David Freeland, (developers) Michael Fernandez, Adam Sinclair

2006

 

The PAD (Points Allocated Development) proposal makes for-sale housing in Los Angeles more affordable by increasing the potential supply of housing units and lowering the cost of development. Through a performative and incentive-based system, points are allocated to projects based on distance from amenities, provision of a mix of uses, general design criteria and community endorsement or benefits. Developers use points to reduce parking, increase FAR, and modify other factors that contribute to a projects's feasibility.

 

The PAD system directs development to parcels through a rewards system that pushes individual projects in a generally desired direction and 'pads' existing zoning through incremental increases. This replaces 'blanket zoning' with an uneven yet tailored set of development opportunities—a kind of topographic zoning.

 

"P.A.D. shows us how our current, rigid menu of zoning options fails to offer planners the tools necessary to define an appropriate envelope for every parcel in a neighborhood. The result is that many projects—including ones community members and planners consider appropriate—require some level of discretionary approval, rendering zoning less relevant and moderately-priced projects harder to finance. PAD’s solution provides a systematic way to blur the current hard lines between zones and provide a predictable (i.e., non-discretionary) means of increasing density close to transit and other infrastructure, gradually tapering it off as you move further into residential neighborhoods." - Mott Smith