By Eric Engelbert
Los Alamitos is one of the smallest cities in Orange County, about four square miles wedged between Long Beach, Seal Beach, Cypress, and Rossmoor, with a military base taking up a large share of its land. It is almost entirely built out. Yet under California's housing mandate, the city has to plan for 769 new homes between 2021 and 2029.
The city's answer is concentrated in one place: the Town Center, a 19.6-acre district around the intersection of Katella Avenue and Los Alamitos Boulevard. No single developer has announced a project there yet, but the rules are in place, the sites are identified, and the plan would turn the middle of Los Alamitos into a walkable downtown with hundreds of new homes over shops. Here is what the city has planned and what it means for anyone who owns or is buying in the area.
The Mandate: 769 Homes in a City With Almost No Empty Land
Every California city receives a Regional Housing Needs Assessment allocation. For the 2021 to 2029 cycle, the Southern California Association of Governments assigned Los Alamitos 769 units, split by income level:
| Income category | Units |
|---|---|
| Very low income (including 97 extremely low) | 194 |
| Low income | 119 |
| Moderate income | 145 |
| Above moderate income | 311 |
| Total | 769 |
That is a big number for a small city. The city's own analysis found that its existing General Plan only had room for about 235 more homes, far short of what the state requires. To close the gap, Los Alamitos had to rezone land for much higher density, and the Town Center became the centerpiece of that effort. The state found the city's housing element in substantial compliance in May 2023.
What the Town Center Is
The Town Center Mixed Use district covers about 19.6 acres in the physical center of the city, bounded roughly by Florista Street to the north, Reagan Street to the east, Farquhar Avenue to the south, and Los Alamitos Boulevard and Chestnut Street to the west. Today it is a mix of older retail strips, restaurants, small offices, and parking lots, with Pine Street running through the middle and the Los Alamitos Medical Center just to the north.
In April 2022, the city doubled the allowed residential density in the district from 30 to 60 units per acre and set a cap of 588 total homes for the Town Center. That one change is what makes the district the backbone of the city's housing plan.
The vision behind it comes from the Town Center Strategic Plan, a market-based framework meant to show developers what the city wants. It calls for Pine Street to become a one-block "Main Street" with outdoor dining, shops, on-street parking, and room for street-closure festivals, with mixed-use buildings and courtyards around it, a potential hotel and shared parking structure in the core blocks, and wide, tree-lined sidewalks along Katella and Los Alamitos Boulevard tying the district to the Medical Center and surrounding neighborhoods.
The Rules: What Can Be Built
The city's zoning code for the district spells out what a new building has to look like, which is useful for owners, buyers, and anyone trying to picture the future streetscape:
- Density: up to 60 homes per acre, with no more than 588 homes in the district in total.
- Height: up to 60 feet.
- Shops on the street: at least 75 percent of the ground-floor frontage on Katella Avenue, Los Alamitos Boulevard, and Pine Street must be commercial, live/work, or cultural space, with tall, window-filled storefronts. Offices are limited to a small share of the ground floor.
- Wide sidewalks: buildings on Katella and Los Alamitos Boulevard must set back at least 12 feet, with the space developed as a walkway lined with shade trees.
- Hidden parking: parking structures facing a street must be wrapped with active uses so they do not present blank walls to the sidewalk.
- Open space: 150 square feet per home in courtyards, plazas, and private outdoor space, with landscaping and shade trees required.
- Neighbors: larger setbacks apply where the district backs up to existing residential streets.
The housing element also calls for inclusionary housing requirements within the Town Center, meaning new projects would be expected to include some affordable units.
The Sites the City Has Identified
The city's housing element lists specific parcels where new homes could realistically go. In the version submitted for airport review in 2023, the Town Center sites accounted for about 467 potential homes, more than half the city's entire mandate:
- 10900 Los Alamitos Boulevard (about 3.1 acres, the largest Town Center site): about 186 homes
- 10909 and 10877 Los Alamitos Boulevard: about 86 homes
- 11021 Reagan Street and 3636 Katella Avenue: about 63 homes
- 11182 and 11232 Los Alamitos Boulevard: about 52 homes
- 10956 Los Alamitos Boulevard: about 41 homes
- 10900 and 10902 Pine Street: about 39 homes
Most of these are active retail properties today, home to restaurants, shops, and small businesses. Being on the list does not mean a property will be redeveloped or that any business is leaving. It means the city has zoned the land so that housing can be built if the owner chooses to. Redevelopment will happen one parcel at a time, as owners and developers decide the numbers work.
Outside the Town Center, the city's other identified sites include the Lampson Avenue property, now the approved Lampson Park Place project, along with sites on Cerritos Avenue, Katella Avenue, and even the City Hall property at 3191 Katella Avenue.
Streets, Bike Lanes, and the Base Next Door
The city is also planning the public side of the Town Center. Its Town Center Complete Streets project, for which the city has sought county transportation grant funding, would rebuild Pine Street between Katella and Florista with new sidewalks, lighting, benches, street trees, and an entry plaza with a gateway monument, add a traffic signal at Katella and Reagan Street to make crossing easier, build a separated bike path along Katella from the 605 to Wallingsford Road, and add bike lanes on Los Alamitos Boulevard.
The Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos is a constant factor in any housing plan here. In 2023 the county Airport Land Use Commission found parts of the city's housing plan inconsistent with the base's airport land use plan, mainly over noise at sites near the runway, which led to a drawn-out dispute and state warnings. Those concerns centered on sites outside the Town Center, and the commission's staff found that none of the city's sites would exceed the base's height limits, which helps explain why the city is leaning on the Town Center to carry so much of the load.
What It Means for Owners and Buyers
For buyers, the Town Center is a long-term story rather than something you can buy into today. Nothing has been proposed by a developer yet, and redevelopment in a district of many small, separately owned parcels usually takes years. But when projects do come, they are likely to bring something Los Alamitos barely has: new condos and apartments within walking distance of restaurants, shops, the Medical Center, and city events.
For owners of single-family homes nearby, a walkable, revitalized downtown with more residents and better streets is generally a plus, the kind of amenity that supports values over time. The trade-offs are the usual ones: taller buildings than the area is used to, more traffic on Katella and Los Alamitos Boulevard, and years of construction as sites redevelop. For commercial property owners in the district, the 2022 rezoning may have meaningfully increased what their land could be worth to a residential developer.
Los Alamitos still offers some of the best value in its part of the county, with highly regarded schools in the Los Alamitos Unified School District and easy access to the beach, the 405, and the 605. As the Town Center takes shape, that combination becomes even more compelling. For more projects across the county, see our New Developments in Orange County page.
Following the Los Alamitos Town Center?
We are tracking the Town Center and every housing project in Los Alamitos, and we will update this page when developers file plans. Whether you own a home or commercial property in or near the district, or you are looking to buy in Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, or Seal Beach, we can help you understand what this means for you.
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