How Mixed-Use Zoning Can Expand Affordable Housing Supply: Evidence from Los Angeles.

This is a preprint version of a manuscript submitted to Land Use Policy.

Los Angeles continues to face significant challenges in expanding its affordable housing supply due to sustained population growth, rising construction costs, and restrictive legacy land use regulations. Despite substantial public investment in affordable housing programs, housing production has not kept pace with demand, particularly in transit-accessible and employment-rich areas. In response, lo-cal governments have increasingly turned to zoning reforms to enable higher residential densities and advance broader planning objectives. Mixed-use zoning, which allows residential development along-side commercial and employment uses, has emerged as a key policy tool in this effort.
This study examines the extent to which mixed-use zoning has contributed to affordable housing pro-duction in Los Angeles. Using publicly available zoning maps, construction permit records, and plan-ning documents, the analysis evaluates housing development patterns within designated mixed-use zones and assesses how outcomes vary by market conditions, regulatory frameworks, and affordabil-ity incentives. The findings indicate that mixed-use zoning has supported increased housing produc-tion in select locations, particularly where streamlined approvals and targeted incentives are present. However, affordability outcomes remain uneven, and mixed-use zoning alone has not consistently produced housing affordable to lower- and moderate-income households. In many areas, development within mixed-use zones has primarily resulted in market-rate housing due to high land values, devel-opment costs, and competition between residential and commercial uses.
The results suggest that mixed-use zoning is most effective when paired with clear affordability re-quirements, coordinated transportation investments, and complementary housing policies. The Los Angeles experience offers important lessons for U.S. cities seeking to integrate zoning flexibility into broader, data-driven strategies to expand affordable housing supply.