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OP|ED - The Los Angeles Planning Department recently unveiled in June 2026 its so-called "Missing Middle" ordinance (MMO). A more accurate name would be the "Missing Common Sense" ordinance. Under the guise of solving the city's housing crisis, Planning Director Vince Bertoni and his management team have crafted a policy that goes far beyond what state lawmakers ever envisioned. In doing so, they have effectively signed a death warrant for Los Angeles’ single-family neighborhoods.
Look no further than California’s Senate Bill 79 (SB 79), which at least attempted to tie increased neighborhood density to transit proximity. The city’s new local ordinance abandons even that shred of logic baked into SB 79 that density needs to be near major regional transit stops. It applies a blanket density mandate across the city, completely ignoring proximity to transit as well as local infrastructure, environmental impacts, traffic, and historic community contexts. This is not sensible urban planning. This is a total capitulation to political trends. The Planning Department has jumped headfirst onto the bandwagon, seemingly eager to appease Councilmember Nithya Raman and her Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) cohorts, as well as developer rights groups like Abundant Housing.
The most frustrating part of this shift is the deception. For years, planning has portrayed themselves as allies to neighborhood preservation. They smiled and nodded during meetings with community advocate groups throughout the city by pretending to care about protecting the architectural, economic, and social fabric of our communities. Now we see the truth: it was an act. It was collusion wrapped in bureaucracy.
But why should these Planning managers care? They don’t have to live with the consequences of their choices. Many Planning’s top managers do not even live within the city limits of Los Angeles. They live in cities untouched by many of these new housing rules. As for Director Vince Bertoni? He lives safely inside an Historic Preservation Overlay Zone (HPOZ) in an area of high regional transit opportunities but conveniently protected from the very high-density zoning laws he is forcing onto everyone else. They protect their own backyards while destroying yours.
Make no mistake, this ordinance is just the tip of the iceberg. If Nithya Raman or her ideological allies successfully ascend to higher office, like the mayor's seat, the Planning Department will fully transform into a political tool for progressive activists. We are already seeing the chaotic, destabilizing results of these exact policies play out in cities like New York. But it won’t be limited to the Planning Department but all Departments, Commissions, and Bureaus throughout the City will transform into the DSA's image. That young DSA person that comes to your door to ask for support Raman for Mayor may well be the next head of the Bureau of Engineering or the President of the City Planning Commission.
When you read the glowing flyers pumped out by Planning about their housing policies, you must look past the slick marketing. View it for what it truly is: a money grab for multi-family developers. The city sells the "Missing Middle" as a way to create affordable housing for the working class. Yet, a close look at the ordinance reveals a glaring omission: it contains virtually no affordable housing requirements for developers.
The proposed MMO is strategic roadmap for developers to successfully navigate the intricacies of all the State Bill already passed and those which are still pending legislative approval. The MMO has nothing to do with community and neighborhood protections. This law will allow private developers to tear down single-family homes, build multi-unit complexes, charge maximum market-rate prices and most importantly offer the impacted communities NOTHING IN RETURN. It creates zero units for those truly in need. It simply destroys established neighborhoods to pad the profit margins of corporate builders. The Planning Department has abandoned the residents it was hired to protect, trading the future of LA's communities for developer dollars, political favors, and most importantly job security.
The most concerning aspect of the Missing Middle Ordinance, alongside similar housing initiatives like the Housing Element update and the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, is that it attempts to correct a structural crisis born from decades of local regulatory failure. For the past twenty years, the Planning and related approval agencies have consistently bottlenecked residential development through inefficient discretionary review processes, outdated Community Plans, overlay complicated application processes, and prolonged environmental delays. The aggressive, statewide mandates currently impacting Los Angeles are a direct consequence of this City's municipal inaction, most especially Planning. Planning is now seeking recognition for introducing corrective density policies to solve a severe housing shortage that its own systemic backlogs and overlay restrictive historical frameworks have created. In essence, the Planning Department started the fires, allowed them to get out of control, and now they want to be commended for working to put them out.
Ironically, if the Missing Middle Ordinance is adopted in its current form, the middle will not only still be missing but our neighborhoods will be gone, housing prices will skyrocket, and the “middle-class” won’t just be missing but entirely extinct.
(Tom Glick is a former Los Angeles city planner who served the City Planning Department for more than 30 years. Since 2017, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association, advocating for responsible planning and neighborhood preservation.)
