West Hollywood may soon face sweeping changes, including a redefinition of some of the city’s last pockets of single-family neighborhoods. While those changes would certainly affect homeowners, they would also impact renters across the city. The City’s Zoning Improvement Program (ZIP) aims to open more land for housing. On paper, it’s a planning update. On the ground, it’s a potential rewrite of people’s lives and investments.
The ZIP plan would let taller and denser buildings rise where bungalows and one-story homes now stand. City planners say the proposal would help West Hollywood meet state housing mandates and create more options for future residents.
Many residents aren’t buying it. They say they’re not against new housing or change. They just don’t want to lose the scale that makes the neighborhood what it is.
WEHOonline spoke with West Hollywood West Residents Association (WHWRA) President Jonathan Finestone, who said several key concerns will be discussed at the meeting, including:
Citywide Impact: Every neighborhood, regardless of its current mix of housing, would be significantly negatively impacted.
Displacement Risks: The plan could trigger widespread displacement and serve as a covert way for developers to eliminate rent-controlled buildings.
Lack of Transparency: Many of the City’s projections and assumptions behind the plan have not been made public or clearly explained.
Economic Reality: The target of adding 3,900 new units—roughly 15% growth in just three to four years—doesn’t appear financially or practically achievable.
Better Alternatives: Focusing exclusively on rezoning commercial areas and leaving neighborhoods and existing residential zones completely unchanged.
That corner of town, bordered roughly by Melrose, Doheny, Beverly, and La Cienega, has long looked and felt different from the rest of the city. It’s one of the few places left where you still find yards and driveways. Families live next door to longtime residents who moved in decades ago. For them, ZIP isn’t a planning document, it’s a threat to everything they’ve worked to preserve.
Ahead of the meeting, WEHOonline spoke with Robert Stelloff, a longtime TriWest resident and business owner, who told us, “Most if not all citizens believe ‘Affordable Housing’ is required, a great thing, and an absolute must, we all do, however, reckless & irrational development with absolute consequential punitive damage to the community & neighborhoods is not the answer.” Adding, “Responsible quality architectural infills & development can be achieved to meet the required RHNA targets as set forth by the CA Dept. of Housing. This cannot & should not not be a free-for-all for all developers, none of who live in the city & share the same common values or concerns. Concrete guardrails need to be implemented, that’s all.”
The West Hollywood West Residents Association argues the plan would rezone and upzone single-family neighborhoods across the city, allowing quadplexes, apartments, and “mini homes” on small parcels. The group and many of its supporters—both homeowners and tenants—say such development would destroy the scale and character of existing neighborhoods, reduce privacy and livability, create new parking and safety problems, and provide no meaningful protections for residents. They believe ZIP would ultimately serve as a windfall for developers, not the community.
Their concerns echo those of many across both the Eastside and Westside who view the plan as a step too far. “West Hollywood should not force everyone into small or stacked homes,” one Eastside homeowner told WEHOonline. “Families deserve a choice. The City can meet its housing goals without erasing every historic block.”
Supporters of ZIP see it differently. Many argue that California’s housing crisis has left cities little room to maneuver. The state has ordered every local government to increase density, and ZIP is West Hollywood’s path to compliance. They say the city’s future depends on adding housing near transit and jobs, while opponents say the character of West Hollywood is what drew people here in the first place. That same tension surfaced during the Housing Element debate when residents urged caution about one-size-fits-all zoning.
Earlier this year, as WEHOonline reported, the City also faced pushback over the Density Bonus Program and the Housing Element implementation plan, both of which drew similar criticism about height, parking, and neighborhood character. Many residents see ZIP as an expansion of those same policies on a broader scale.
The association will host additional ZIP meetings in the coming weeks, with the next one scheduled for this Wednesday, November 12th, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the West Hollywood Aquatic & Recreation Center, 8750 El Tovar Place. The meeting will be held outdoors, and attendees are advised to dress warmly. A second meeting will follow on Monday, December 9, at the same time and place. Guests for that evening will include Mayor Chelsea Byers, Director of Planning & Development Services Nick Maricich, and Assistant Director of Community Development Jennifer Alkire.
These meetings are among the few remaining chances you will have to directly influence how the city redraws its zoning map.
West Hollywood West represents a kind of neighborhood that’s getting harder to find. Whether ZIP moves forward or gets reworked, we’re all about to find out just how far the city and our elected leaders are willing to go to meet housing goals without upending entire neighborhoods in the process. RSVP here
WeHo is one of the most population dense cities in the U.S. I have little faith in our neighborhood not being turned into high rises with no single family homes, as John Erickson posts his “YIMBY!” to this and we have the other far left stooges that follow his lead. It is never enough…the lots just sit empty and attract more bums. Look at the Palm Ave memory loss center project where the homes have sat empty for years and bums have turned it into a nirvana of sorts (previously rent controlled single family homes). They’ve stolen our water by… Read more »
Interviewing Jonathan about local housing policies is like talking with the CEO of Exxon about climate change.
Single-family zoning is not racist. That’s a ridiculous comment. In my neighborhood, as I’m sure with all neighborhoods in West Hollywood, we have a tapestry of different ethnic backgrounds. Stop with the BS.
WeHo had better resolve this quickly. (My preference is to add more mixed commercial/residential buildings on commercial streets.) Failing to meet the state deadline will cause WeHo to face the same disaster now occurring in Beverly Hills, where several builder remedies projects are now in development and will put oversized buildings with minimal on-site parking in neighborhoods where they will overwhelm adjacent low-rise properties. If WeHo dawdles, all local zoning controls will be overridden by state law.
It’s not just West Hollywood West. It’s Tri-West, Norma Triangle and others! No need to destroy the character of these neighborhoods. To discriminate against gay families that chose to raise their families in these neighborhoods. It’s just a land grab. Build higher and denser a long major commercial corridors. Santa Monica is primarily one and two stories up and down the blvd! Plenty of opportunities there without destroying historic neighborhoods!
I thought the city was all about diversity? If building more density creates more diversity…….seems good to me. No?
Yes, diversity is a good thing. Destroying someone’s neighborhood is not. Families chose to live in a single family zoned area and the City Of West Hollywood is contemplating destroying single-family neighborhoods. Build higher, build denser all along commercial corridors where one and two stories exist. No need to go into someone’s neighborhood and tell them they’re gonna build a seven story structure next to their single-family home after that family has put everything that they have into their home.
It was sarcasm. If your “group” is affected you don’t want it.
A lot of us want WH to change. But not by building a slum.
Yes, but the city should be striving for is to create a zip program that works for All. Why would they go in and destroy a single-family neighborhood when there is plenty of opportunity to meet their housing goals along commercial corridors. You don’t sacrifice a group of people in order to make another group of people happy. You look for the solution that makes everyone happy.
💯% accurate, diversity is welcomed, championed, & sought – Destruction & capitalist overdevelopment @ the citizen’s (renters & owners alike) expense is not!
Truth!