Agency / Organization:
City of Santa Monica, Planning Department

Status:
Complete

Intent:
California’s Department of Housing and Community Development implements a Regional Needs Housing Allocation (RHNA) that requires local jurisdictions to plan for housing needs in each region of the state. The City of Santa Monica was quick to recognize the importance of reusing their existing buildings and providing incentives for Developers to convert underutilized buildings into housing, and also create new construction housing as a part of this incentive without drastically altering the density and quality of their City.



Omgivning was asked to take the City’s new planning policies for the adaptive reuse and redevelopment of properties for housing and apply them to five different building types. The process allowed for the Planning Department to see the actual impact of the policy and help them modify and craft the incentives properly. Modeling incentives on actual buildings and sites is imperative for Planners to see the effects of the policies they implement. As an Architect that works closely with Developers from the vision and financial aspects of a project, in addition to doing our own Developments, we are most adept at seeing all sides of planning policy and can help make adaptive reuse projects successful.

Read more about the the ARO incentives and Omgivning’s project models. https://omgivning.com/journal/omgivning-city-of-santa-monica-adaptive-reuse-ordinance/