FILL ‘EM UP
Fill ‘em up.
To be more precise, “infill” ‘em up.
The Inyo County Planning Department is in the throes of an interesting, two-step project: First, figuring out how many privately owned empty lots are sitting vacant in Lone Pine, Independence and Big Pine. Second, exploring whether current zoning and development regulations are hindering or downright stopping those empty lots from being developed for housing. (Granted, this is a land-use planner Geek project where tinkering in theory with rules and regulations might eventually generate a desired result.)
The initial findings after a sweep though those three towns might be a bit surprising considering it’s become a cliché that there is very little private land available for development in Inyo County. The consultants (hired with a state planning grant) from Precision Civil Engineering identified 59 vacant lots in the three towns. All the lots are privately owned and are a mix of residential and commercial core zoned lands.
The Big Theory behind the vacant land review is that it should be easier to build housing on empty lots in town which link easily into existing infrastructure as opposed to developing “raw” land that needs water, sewer, streets, etc. So, fill up the current town before plowing up a nearby hay field. In planner-speak, that’s “infill development.” Thus, the name of the project, Residential Infill Opportunities.
A total of 59 empty lots might not sound like a lot, but considering the size of those three communities, it’s not insignificant, either.
Lone Pine, with an estimated population of about 2,000 folks, has 21 vacant lots.
Big Pine, with just under 2,000 souls, has 22 empty lots.
Independence, with 600 people, has 14 vacant lots.
Those lots are all privately owned, stressed Jenna Chilingerian of consulting firm PCE, during a recent presentation in Independence. Not included are any parcels owned by Inyo County or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Also left out were the long-promised, never-delivered LADWP “land releases.”
The vacant parcels’ zoning was a mix of residential and multi-family along with “commercial core” parcels. Those parcels along US 395 could be developed as a mix of commercial and residential uses, or converted completely to residential, she noted.
The second part of the project involves some theoretical detective work to try and find reasons those empty lots are still empty despite the pressing need for more housing in each community.
The PCE folks will look at each lot and consider if changes to the current zoning regulations, development code and design guidelines could make it easier to actually build a home on the lots, and even make it possible to build a home and an Accessory Dwelling Unit on a vacant lot. Those code requirements and regulations include everything from property line setbacks, density limits, parking requirements, minimum lot size, height restrictions and plenty more. Chilingerian cited the example of the 25-foot front property line setback in the R1 zone. Changing that to 15 feet, as an experiment, might provide enough leeway for a home and ADU, she noted.
The county Planning Department and the consultants presented the infill info at well-attended public meetings in each community. That public input, mostly positive with the expected, “yeah, but, not too much” reservations, will be included in the ongoing analysis.
Chilingerian said the end result should be recommendations and other concepts that might help spur home building on the vacant land. Those ideas will be presented in additional public workshop at the end of May. Deciding if any of those possible changes would spark the lengthy effort to change the county’s current General Plan, Housing Element, or zoning and development codes, would be a whole new, separate undertaking.
Jon Klusmire of Bishop is happy to report that when it comes to stressing the importance of infill development, Inyo County is a step ahead of Los Angeles. On March 5 the city launched a similar program to help spur development on vacant city lots. The scale is a tad different, though. LA has 24,000 vacant lots that could hold housing.
