Source: Gregory Morrow, The Homeowner Revolution: Democracy, Land Use and the Los Angeles Slow-Growth Movement, 1965-1992. PhD thesis, 2013.
An April 2015 article by Henry Grabar in Salon:
According to planner Greg Morrow, Los Angeles is now zoned to house at most 4.2 million people. The current population is 3.9 million.
Los Angeles and its satellites — once the land of the American homeowner dream — now form the most stunted urban region in the country. There were 28,000 new housing starts in the L.A. Metro last year (pop. 13 million), versus 64,000 in Houston (pop. 2 million). There were fewer permits per capita in Los Angeles than in San Francisco.
This has become expensive for homeowners and tenants alike. The former spend 40 percent of their income on mortgage payments; the latter spend 48 percent of their income on rent. Both figures are the highest in the country.
“You have essentially a minority of a minority of a minority who determine the housing policies for the vast majority of Angelenos.” The first minority are homeowners; the second, those engaged in land use issues; the third, those who have the time and money to litigate.
“They think downzoning will stop growth,” Morrow said. “It won’t stop people from coming to LA. It makes the lives of those who do come that much worse.”