If developers are looking for a window to what’s in store in 2006, they don’t have to look much further than a plan that skated through the city council just before the holiday recess. The plan, which passed unanimously, establishes an interim control procedure for residential development in Warner Center that requires new rental and condominium developments to set aside 25 percent of units for those who earn 120 percent or less of the county median income. The procedure puts into place what is effectively the first affordable housing regulation to hit the city of Los Angeles. And though it is a temporary measure likely to last just two years, it sends a message that is already reverberating through the development community: put up and shut up or we’ll get somebody else who will. For years now, developers have been telling city officials that they need density bonuses and other concessions in order to provide affordable housing and still turn a profit on their projects. The ongoing debate foiled attempts to institute a citywide affordable housing ordinance, and the effort was quietly scrapped before the most recent mayoral elections. Now, however, it appears that the city, with some vocal backing from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has found new resolve for the battle, and from the looks of things, it’s more than political posturing. “The developers are all multimillionaires,” said an angry Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine, whose district includes Warner Center. “They’re making more money sleeping than the people who are working. I don’t have a lot of compassion for them. They are gouging the population, and I’m trying to create a semblance of order.” Zine says he is just making sure that the Warner Center Specific Plan, which governs development in the area, does what it is designed to do maintain a balance between housing and commerce so that the area serves as a self-contained community where people can work and live. The current specific plan anticipated that there would be 3,000 residential units built by 2010. It’s 2006 and, based on approvals already granted, the area is about 120 units short of meeting that benchmark. Once it’s met, the new measure kicks in. But there is another numbers game that is influencing Zine and, presumably, the rest of the city council, and will likely shape the direction the city takes toward development in the future. Currently, more than half the workers in the Warner Center area earn $50,000 and less annually, and they cannot afford to live there. A measure that allows up to 120 percent of the median county income would cover a single buyer or tenant earning a maximum of $55,000 a year. Zine rattles off the job titles of those folks: police, firefighters, teachers, working people who are now clogging freeways to live and work in L.A., and he says, left to free market forces, things will only get worse. “I want Warner Center to remain what it was designed for so you don’t have to commute long distances,” Zine said. “And the people who are trying to make ends meet, to give them a quality of life in an affordable environment, and I will find developers who will do this.” Affordable housing provisions like the one passed for Warner Center set homeownership and rental rates for those eligible based on a formula that amounts to about one third of the renter’s or buyer’s income, a benchmark set by the Housing and Urban Development Department. The developer assumes the difference between that rate level and market rates. And in the case of owners, the pricing and status remains with the title, so a home bought under an affordable housing provision cannot be flipped onto the free market. No sooner did the measure pass then I got a call from a nervous broker who told me he thought several deals he had in the pipeline would go south as a result. Indeed, developers have long threatened that these provisions would deter the construction of housing in the city altogether. But those arguments, or any of the others against legislating affordable housing are not likely to carry the weight they once did. I threw them all out to Zine, and he dismissed them one by one. Developers argue it’s too expensive to provide these units without incentives and Zine answers it isn’t. They say they have a fiduciary responsibility to their investors, and Zine says he has a responsibility to the community. They claim such units will lower the housing values overall and Zine says it won’t. They claim that supply and demand sets values and Zine says that system isn’t working. Truth be told, moving forward, developers may find themselves on the wrong side of the battle with few allies. If just 15 percent of residents can afford a median-priced home, those people will go elsewhere. The city won’t have services, businesses won’t have workers, and there will be no middle class. That’s not something the rest of the business community is willing to endure. It will take about two years for the new Warner Center Specific Plan to be drawn up, and I have no doubt that developers will make their voices known loud and clear during that period. It also remains to be seen whether city officials will buckle to pressure from what is a powerful lobby. But Zine has a warning for developers. Noting that he had the support of the council on this Warner Center measure, he insists that the city is done tip-toeing around, particularly as the new mayor has expressed strong support for providing workforce housing. That, Zine says, is a sign of things to come. “There are a number of developers willing to make this happen without incentives,” Zine said. “This is only interim. The specific plan is going to lay out all the details. But the more they (developers) complain, the more they argue, the more they show lack of compassion, the more rigid I and my colleagues will become. Every step along the way we have tried to work with them and every step along they way they’ve complained.”