Zoning and Cost of Living in Westwood Village

One of the common complaints around UCLA (at least for the parents) is the very high cost of living and the very crowded conditions. To share a small room with two other people can cost about $800 a month, and that was a few years ago (though to be fair it does include the cost of food). You also had to deal with no parking, a hike up some hills, slow elevators, scant washing machines and dryers, no air conditioning, a bathroom that you must share with the entire floor, etc. Now the school has been improving conditions in these so called halls, but there is still no parking and a communal bathroom.

How do they get away with this? They get a huge subsidy from the country; the problem is that most people do not know about it because it is an indirect benefit. The biggest secret that first-years at UCLA do not know is that the university owns a few apartment buildings around the school. You get a much larger room, have to share it with less people per unit area, get a bathroom exclusive to the room, and parking is cheap. You even get air conditioning and a full kitchen. You do not get food with it, but at only around $650 a month, these rooms are a comparative steal. Why does the university own these buildings? Because of the problem that is the rest of Westwood Village. All of this land is built up to the zoning capacity. This means that even though rents are high enough that new, taller structures are warranted, they cannot be built. The county is limiting the density in this area.

How bad is the problem? One only needs to look at the parking situation to determine that. You can drive around for 20 minutes around the area sometime in the afternoon without finding a parking spot, and when you do it is probably a spot that can only be used for 2 hours at a time. Most new structures include plenty of parking at low rates for their residents. Most of the buildings here are at least 30 years old and so do not have that parking that most new buildings have. How much has demand for housing risen in those 30 years? Probably much more than supply has risen. A bachelor apartment on Gayley without parking and air conditioning can cost $950 a month. That is just one room. But what choice do residents have? Everything in Westwood is expensive, and zoning is at capacity.

But what about traffic? Increasing density would presumably increase traffic, but this is not much of an issue. Most of the traffic in this area is caused by people driving from UCLA to the 405 or people driving around looking for a parking spot. Allowing more housing units would decrease this parking spot hunting traffic since new buildings tend to include parking. There is just no good reason to limit density as the county has done for this area. It is time to speak bluntly; zoning is capped so that UCLA can charge high rents and so that nearby property owners can live in the past. The students are cheated for the benefit of the rich.