The framework, in JDJ’s words
Each market on this site runs its own code, department names, and review process. Here is how entitlement work moves through Los Angeles.
Every project in the city sits on multiple possible layers of density and approval relief, and knowing which one, or which stack, applies is the single biggest lever in an LA feasibility study. This part of the code has moved fast over the past 18 months, so we verify current program status at project intake rather than relying on what applied even a year ago.
How Los Angeles Regulates Development
State Density Bonus Law
State Density Bonus Law is the statewide floor. Any qualifying project offering affordable units can request additional density, reduced parking, and development incentives or waivers, regardless of where it sits in the city.
CHIP (Citywide Housing Incentive Program)
Operative since February 2025, it is now the city’s primary local density bonus ordinance and replaced the old TOC program. CHIP offers three tracks: the State Density Bonus Program, the AHIP (Affordable Housing Incentive Program) for 80 to 100 percent affordable and faith-based or community land trust projects, and the MIIP (Mixed-Income Incentive Program) for corridor and transition-area sites, which extends incentives well beyond the old half-mile transit radius. The former TOC transit tiers now live inside CHIP as TOIA (Transit-Oriented Incentive Areas). Depending on the track and location, CHIP can unlock a larger density bonus, floor area increase, and parking reduction than transit proximity alone used to allow under TOC.
The Affordable Housing Streamlining Ordinance
The Affordable Housing Streamlining Ordinance applies to 100 percent affordable housing projects and shelters. Qualifying projects move through a ministerial approval process with a 60 day review target and are exempt from discretionary hearings, provided the project does not require a zone change, variance, or General Plan amendment. City Council adopted this ordinance in December 2025, folding it permanently into the LAMC. It originated as a temporary mayoral directive known as Executive Directive 1 (ED1), but that directive has been retired and replaced by the ordinance, it is no longer the operative instrument. Eligibility carve-outs for single-family zones and historic districts are now fixed into the ordinance rather than subject to further executive revision. In practice, most projects moving through this pathway and through CHIP’s AHIP track are LIHTC-financed, since the same 80 to 100 percent affordability thresholds that qualify a project for local streamlining also align with Low-Income Housing Tax Credit eligibility. We coordinate the entitlement and permitting timeline against a project’s LIHTC application and allocation deadlines, since a missed local approval window can cost a project its funding round.
SB 79
SB 79, the statewide Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, became operative July 1, 2026, and applies in Los Angeles County as an urban transit county. It upzones qualifying sites near major transit stops by state mandate, independent of local CHIP or zoning action, though the City is phasing in local implementation through its own Low-Rise and Phased Implementation Ordinances. Where a site qualifies under both SB 79 and CHIP, the two need to be compared directly, since one is not automatically the better outcome.
JDJ’s role is verifying which of these apply to a given parcel before a client commits to a purchase or a pro forma, since the density and parking assumptions baked into a feasibility study change significantly depending on the answer, and depending on when the study was run.
Beyond the density bonus stack, City Planning and LADBS administer several other state law pathways worth screening on any given site: SB 9 (urban lot splits and two-unit development on single-family zoned parcels), AB 2011 (ministerial approval for converting underused commercial and retail sites to housing), AB 2097 (elimination of parking minimums near major transit), and AB 2234 (streamlined, deadline-driven post-entitlement permit review). Depending on the parcel, one or more of these can apply alongside or instead of CHIP or SB 79.
What JDJ handles in Los Angeles
Entitlement and permitting activity remains steady across project types citywide. Here is how JDJ moves projects through the process.