Increasing Infill Production

Infill housing is housing built on previously developed urban land, typically to higher density than the land’s previous use. Increasing infill production can improve housing affordability by providing people with smaller and less land- and capital-intensive housing options, by increasing the supply of housing relative to demand, and in some cases by directly producing units restricted to lower-income households (e.g., through density bonus policies). Infill may also reduce household expenditures by encouraging lower-cost transportation, such as transit and walking, and advances other priorities including environmental sustainability, public health, government budget and infrastructure resiliency, and more. Dense, walkable, transit-oriented communities are sharply undersupplied in Southern California and across the U.S., and infill can help fill these gaps.

Lewis Center Housing Initiative staff and affiliates study the policies that limit housing production directly (e.g., zoning regulations, minimum parking requirements) and indirectly (e.g., rent control, entitlement and permitting processes), and the reforms that can increase infill production in communities across the region. We are particularly interested in incentives and barriers to building lower-cost multifamily housing, and how efforts to increase housing supply for specific populations may exacerbate overall housing scarcity and unaffordability. We also explore how cities balance housing production and supply with other priorities including affordable housing preservation, infrastructure and service needs, and household and community stability.