At a recent Southern California Public-Private Partnerships event by BisNow, The Planning Report was on hand to document a powerful case study in public-private collaboration: the redevelopment of the Santa Monica & Vermont Metro station area into a vibrant, affordable housing and public space project. We present the panel's insights through thematic focus areas, which offer a forward-looking roadmap for transit-oriented development that centers community, navigates complexity, and unlocks underused public land for long-term public benefit.
Moderated by Nathan Bishop, Partner & Design Principal, Koning Eizenberg Architecture
Panelists included: Debbie Chen, Director of Real Estate, Little Tokyo Service Center, Wells Lawson, Deputy Executive Officer, LA Metro, Emma Howard, Director of Community Development & Planning, CD13, City of Los Angeles.
“This is what success looks like—not just housing, but neighborhood-building,” - Nathan Bishop.
Unlocking the Value of Transit-Adjacent Land through Public-Private Alignment
The Santa Monica & Vermont site sat underutilized for decades. With Metro's evolving Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) policy and LTSC’s initiative to consolidate the block, a dormant plaza was transformed into affordable housing, small business opportunities, and an activated public space. Metro, typically a long-term ground lessor, made the rare move to sell the land—a decision shaped by federal ownership constraints but ultimately critical to project feasibility and site integration.
“Metro’s land disposition strategy had to evolve. Selling the land outright gave LTSC the control they needed to make the full block work,” shared Wells Lawson.
Designing for Public Life, Not Just Housing Units
From the outset, LTSC envisioned more than just homes—they sought a project that enhanced the neighborhood, included cultural retail, and engaged the public realm. But original designs fell short of that vision.
“We knew we needed something different, something open and interconnected. The design team at Koning Eizenberg helped us unlock that,” explained Debbie Chen.
The final design created a porous, pedestrian-friendly connection between the housing and the Metro plaza—an approach that enhanced safety, visibility, and public life, while honoring LTSC’s community development mission.
Planning Complexity & Outdated Zoning Constraints
The project was governed by the Vermont/Western Station Neighborhood Area Plan (SNAP)—a 1990s-era specific plan that imposed strict height limits, narrow use definitions, and outdated park fee formulas. While SNAP was progressive in its time, it became a barrier to delivering urgently needed affordable housing.
“SNAP’s granularity created inflexibility,” said Emma Howard. “It’s hard to scale or replicate good projects when each parcel has a unique zoning rule.”
City and state programs, including the TOC program, AHIP, and CHIP, are now working to streamline these processes and provide more flexible incentives for affordable projects on public land.
Policy Reform in Action—Progress & Remaining Barriers
The Santa Monica & Vermont development benefited from a stack of public funding sources, including HCD’s AHSC and TOD programs, Prop HHH, and Measure ULA. But financing still required navigating multiple applications, agencies, and entitlements, often sequentially.
“It’s gotten better,” noted Debbie Chen, “but we still need more coordination. A one-stop funding shop is starting to emerge—but it’s not fully there yet.”
Metro and the City both shared lessons on how to simplify approval processes, reduce redundancy, and accelerate timelines to meet the urgency of today’s housing needs. “Our internal changes mean Metro is now releasing RFPs ten times faster than before,” said Lawson. “But the next step is aligning that speed with City processes and reducing review overlap.”
Trust and Power-Sharing Between Public Agencies and Community Developers
A recurring message was the importance of letting go of control. Public partners often hold tight to decision-making, slowing down projects with unnecessary oversight. But real trust means empowering capable, mission-aligned developers to lead.
“We already have control—we hold the funding. What our partners need is trust and clear ground rules,” said Emma Howard. From parcel consolidation challenges to Metro’s station box engineering requirements, the project team confronted—and overcame—numerous hurdles by leaning on early coordination and shared goals.
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Conclusion - A Blueprint for Public-Private Urbanism
The Santa Monica & Vermont case is more than a TOD—it’s a demonstration of how meaningful design, public land strategy, community vision, and regulatory reform can come together. It required risk, trust, and persistence—but now stands as a model for future infill housing and public space projects across Los Angeles.
Metro's willingness to adapt its land disposition policies—selling instead of ground leasing—was a crucial pivot that unlocked site consolidation and project feasibility. The City of Los Angeles, through planning and council leadership, acknowledged that legacy zoning tools like SNAP, while well-intentioned, now often obstruct the delivery of housing and community benefits, and has begun modernizing them through programs like CHIP and AHIP.
Most importantly, this case reinforces the idea that housing policy is not just about units. It’s about place. It’s about dignity. And it’s about creating spaces where people not only live, but thrive—surrounded by culture, transit, small businesses, and each other. From a design perspective, this was not just an architectural success but a civic one. As Nathan Bishop emphasized, it’s the integration of the public and private realms—the human-scaled spaces, the accessible courtyards, the spillover patios—that transformed a once-fenced-off Metro plaza into a vibrant community anchor.
For community developers like LTSC, the project exemplifies the value of local knowledge, long-term stewardship, and trust-based partnerships. Through their early site control, coalition-building, and patient coordination with public agencies, they were able to push a complex, multi-year project across the finish line without compromising on affordability, local business inclusion, or design excellence.
As Los Angeles continues to grapple with overlapping crises of homelessness, housing scarcity, and disjointed planning systems, the lessons from this project are urgent and transferable. Success demands a unified, citywide commitment to remove procedural obstacles, align funding and policy timelines, and empower mission-driven partners to deliver on shared goals.
The Santa Monica & Vermont project is not an exception. It should be a precedent—a replicable, city-supported model for transforming surplus public land into resilient, inclusive, and community-serving development. The Planning Report is proud to provide a platform for such forward-looking leadership and looks forward to following the ripple effects of this project across LA’s urban landscape.
Contact [info@verdexchange.org] if you’d like to request the full transcript of the conversation!
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