Council briefed on three new state housing and land-use laws: transit-oriented goals, parking limits, and turf restrictions

Planning staff summarized recent state legislation that affects local land use and housing policy and identified near-term reporting deadlines and options for council consideration.

Transit-Oriented Communities: Staff member John presented HB 2024 provisions commonly called the Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) law. The law requires municipalities to calculate a "housing opportunity goal" for non-exempt parcels in designated transit station areas and certain high-frequency bus corridors; Inglewood's initial, conservative analysis found the city's zoning capacity within the designated areas (40 units per acre standard applied by staff) would produce roughly 24,780 units — about 6% above the law's calculated housing opportunity goal of 23,313 units. Staff recommended council authorize staff to file the statutory preliminary assessment report due June 30, 2025, and to engage Planning & Zoning in the comprehensive-plan update. Staff noted the city may choose whether to treat certain publicly owned City Center parcels and industrial parcels as exempt or non-exempt; including them as non-exempt would increase capacity but could require by-right residential allowances on some industrial parcels.

Minimum parking limits: Staff also summarized a law that takes effect June 30, 2025, limiting minimum parking requirements within transit service areas. Key points: residential projects of 19 units or fewer within the transit service area cannot be subject to city minimum parking requirements; projects of 20 units or more can be limited to a maximum of one parking space per unit only after the city publishes a findings report (traffic engineer review, localized parking utilization studies within 1/8 mile, and evidence that other parking-management strategies would not work). The law preserves cities' ability to set accessible parking standards, regulate EV spaces and require paid or shared parking. Staff advised the change would require Title 16 amendments and that smaller infill parcels may be most affected.

Turf and landscape restrictions: The final state law summarized (effective 1/1/2026) restricts installation of nonfunctional turf, artificial turf and invasive plant species on commercial, institutional and industrial properties and transportation corridors. Staff said the city will need to update Title 16 and the landscape workbook to reflect prohibited species and to coordinate with state or regional plant lists; parks and streetscape projects will need to use drought-tolerant plantings.

Council discussion focused on timing, local discretion and practical impacts. Several councilmembers asked whether Inglewood already meets the TOC density targets (staff said yes, in the staff analysis), whether city center or industrial parcels should be designated non-exempt, and how quickly staff can produce the June 30 preliminary report. Council asked for more detail on the parking-law implications for ADUs and for small infill projects; staff recommended a follow-up memo with parcel-level counts and examples and an updated Title 16 amendment draft. On turf restrictions, staff agreed to provide a proposed list of prohibited species and to coordinate a code amendment.

Next steps: staff proposed to file the TOC preliminary assessment by 06/30/2025, engage Planning & Zoning and return to council in July with the draft report and recommended code changes for parking and landscaping.