Condominium Development Fees Review

At a glance

What: a motion by Yaroslavsky (agenda item 24) asking city staff to report back with options to reduce or restructure the fees and processes that make condos and townhomes harder to build than the same apartments.
Where it stands: adopted by the City Council on 2026-10-20 as amended, 14 ayes, 0 noes (Price absent; the captions say he recused himself as a landlord).
Next: the City Administrative Officer's report in 90 days on fees and exactions for small-scale for-sale housing, with the added criteria below.

The median Los Angeles home costs more than $1 million, and new Southern California condo construction is down roughly 90 percent from its 2005-2006 peak, per the motion's author.
Her argument: the fee gap pushes builders toward apartments, leaving middle-income households few ownership options.
The motion does not eliminate any fee; it asks for options.

Item 24, Council File 26-1341, Housing Committee report on a fee deferral program letting developers pay impact fees later than building permit issuance, from a motion by Yaroslavsky and Nazarian seconded by Harris-Dawson.
The City Administrative Officer is to report within 90 days on fees applying to small-scale for-sale housing (park fees, the Affordable Housing Linkage Fee, subdivision and mapping fees), options for exemptions, reductions, credits, deferrals or proportional fees, the fiscal effect, and the long-term property-tax effect of more individually owned homes.
Amending Motion 24 by Jurado seconded by Yaroslavsky replaced Recommendation 4: the report must also assess the feasibility and impacts of excluding projects that demolish or alter units under an affordability covenant, under the Rent Stabilization Ordinance, or occupied by tenants in the past five years, and projects where an Ellis Act withdrawal occurred within 5, 10 or 15 years of the application.

About 4 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-20 - City Council	4

Journal: item 24 (Council File 26-1341), adopted as amended by Amending Motion 24 (Jurado - Yaroslavsky), 14 ayes, 0 noes, Price absent.

2026-10-20 - City Council - Adopted 14 ayes after Yaroslavsky's remarks; Price recused.