If you’ve spent any time driving around Glendale lately, you’ve probably found yourself asking the same question as thousands of other residents: “Where did all these apartment buildings come from?”

Around Glendale, conversations about new apartment construction have become almost as common as debates over which bakery has the best lahmajoun. Everyone has an opinion, but far fewer people understand why so much development is happening.

It isn’t your imagination. From Downtown Glendale to San Fernando Road, along major corridors like Colorado Street and Central Avenue, cranes, construction fencing, and mixed-use developments have become part of the city’s landscape. Former office buildings are being redeveloped, older commercial properties are giving way to new apartment communities, and projects that might have seemed unlikely ten years ago are now moving forward.

Many residents assume the City of Glendale simply decided to approve more apartment buildings. Others believe developers suddenly discovered Glendale as Southern California’s newest real estate hotspot. The truth is considerably more complex.

Much of what you’re seeing is driven by California law, statewide housing policies, local planning requirements, and economic realities that extend far beyond Glendale’s city limits. Cities today have significantly less discretion over housing development than they did a decade ago. Developers also have access to legal tools and incentives that make larger residential projects more feasible than ever before.

Understanding why Glendale is changing requires understanding how California has fundamentally changed the rules governing housing development.

Glendale Didn’t Create the Housing Crisis

Before discussing Glendale specifically, it’s important to understand the bigger picture. California has faced a housing shortage for decades. Population growth, rising construction costs, restrictive zoning, environmental regulations, limited land availability, and years of underbuilding have combined to create one of the country’s least affordable housing markets.

The effects are easy to see throughout Los Angeles County.

Young professionals struggle to purchase their first home. Families often remain renters far longer than previous generations. Essential workers—including teachers, nurses, firefighters, police officers, and city employees—frequently commute long distances because housing near their workplaces has become increasingly expensive.

The shortage affects nearly everyone, regardless of income level.

State lawmakers concluded that relying solely on local governments to decide when and where housing should be built was no longer producing enough homes. As a result, Sacramento began passing legislation designed to encourage—and in some cases require—cities to accommodate substantially more residential development.

Glendale is responding to those laws, not acting independently.

Why Glendale?

Glendale occupies a unique position within Los Angeles County. The city enjoys strong employment opportunities, highly rated schools, convenient freeway access, vibrant shopping districts, and proximity to major employment centers like Downtown Los Angeles, Pasadena, Burbank, Hollywood, and the entertainment industry.

Simply put, people want to live here. That demand places enormous pressure on the housing market. When demand consistently exceeds supply, prices rise. Developers naturally begin looking for opportunities to build additional housing, particularly multifamily communities that maximize the value of increasingly expensive land.

At the same time, Glendale has become an attractive location for mixed-use redevelopment. Many older commercial sites, aging office buildings, surface parking lots, and underutilized properties can now support residential projects that better align with California’s current housing objectives.

These redevelopment opportunities have accelerated apartment construction throughout the city.

The State Assigns Housing Goals to Every Community

One of the biggest misconceptions about apartment development is that cities simply choose how much housing they want to build. That isn’t how California’s planning system works. Every city in California participates in a long-term planning process designed to ensure that housing is produced throughout the state rather than concentrated in only a handful of communities.

This process is known as the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, commonly referred to as RHNA. Although the acronym appears frequently in planning documents, relatively few residents understand what it actually means. RHNA is not a construction mandate requiring Glendale to build apartment buildings itself. Instead, RHNA establishes housing production goals that cities must plan to accommodate over a specified planning period. Think of it less as a construction order and more as a planning assignment.

The State determines how much housing each region needs. Regional planning agencies distribute those housing targets among individual cities. Each city must then demonstrate that it has enough appropriately zoned land to allow that housing to be built if private developers choose to pursue projects.

That distinction matters.

The City is generally not constructing these apartments. Private developers are. The City’s responsibility is making sure its zoning and planning regulations don’t unnecessarily prevent housing from being developed.

Housing Isn’t Just About Luxury Apartments

Another common misconception is that California only wants more apartment buildings. The actual goal is much broader. RHNA assigns housing needs across multiple income categories.

Those categories generally include:

  • Very Low Income
  • Low Income
  • Moderate Income
  • Above Moderate Income

This approach reflects the reality that California’s housing shortage affects households across the income spectrum. A healthy housing market includes luxury apartments, workforce housing, affordable housing, entry-level condominiums, townhomes, and single-family residences. When cities prepare their housing plans, they must consider opportunities for all of these housing types—not just one segment of the market.

What Is Glendale’s Housing Element?

Every California city is required to adopt a Housing Element as part of its General Plan. Glendale’s Housing Element serves as the city’s long-term blueprint for accommodating future housing needs while complying with California law.

The Housing Element identifies areas where future housing could reasonably be developed and evaluates whether existing zoning regulations support those goals.

Among other things, it examines:

  • Land available for residential development
  • Opportunities for redevelopment
  • Existing zoning classifications
  • Housing affordability
  • Government constraints
  • Programs designed to encourage housing production

Importantly, the Housing Element is reviewed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), which determines whether the plan complies with state law. If deficiencies exist, cities may be required to revise their Housing Elements or adopt additional programs to achieve compliance.

This review process has become increasingly rigorous over the past several years as California has intensified its efforts to address the statewide housing shortage.

Why Older Commercial Properties Are Becoming Apartments

Residents often ask why office buildings, shopping centers, or older commercial properties are suddenly being replaced with apartment communities. The answer frequently comes down to economics and land use planning.

Consumer behavior has changed dramatically. Retail continues evolving as online shopping becomes more prevalent. Many office buildings continue experiencing higher vacancy rates than they did before remote work became commonplace. Some commercial properties simply no longer generate the economic activity they once did.

At the same time, housing demand remains extraordinarily strong. From a development perspective, converting an underperforming commercial property into residential housing may represent the highest and best use of the land.

Cities recognize this reality.

Planning departments throughout California—including Glendale’s—have increasingly explored mixed-use development, adaptive reuse, and strategic rezoning as tools to accommodate future housing while revitalizing aging commercial corridors.

This doesn’t mean every commercial property will become apartments. It does mean redevelopment opportunities have expanded considerably compared to previous decades.

Density Bonus Law: Why Bigger Projects Are Becoming More Common

Another reason apartment buildings appear larger than older developments is California’s Density Bonus Law. This law encourages developers to include affordable housing by offering valuable incentives that can make projects financially feasible.

In exchange for reserving a specified percentage of units for qualifying lower-income households, developers may become eligible for benefits such as:

  • Additional residential units beyond the property’s base zoning
  • Increased building height
  • Reduced parking requirements
  • Development concessions
  • Waivers from certain zoning standards

Imagine a property where local zoning ordinarily permits 100 apartments. If the developer agrees to provide qualifying affordable housing units, California law may allow additional units that otherwise would not have been permitted.

From the public’s perspective, the building appears larger than expected. From the developer’s perspective, the additional units help offset the cost of constructing and operating affordable housing. It is a legal balancing act rather than a regulatory loophole.

This also explains why many newly constructed luxury apartment communities include affordable housing units within the same development. Those affordable units are often part of a broader agreement that allows the project to take advantage of California’s density bonus incentives.

Understanding Density Bonus Law helps explain why today’s apartment communities often look different from projects built twenty or thirty years ago. The legal landscape has changed, and developers are designing projects around a new set of rules intended to encourage housing production while expanding affordability.

Final Thoughts

Glendale is changing, and so are the laws that shape its future.

The increase in apartment construction is not the result of a single policy decision or a sudden surge in developer interest. It reflects years of statewide housing legislation, evolving land use priorities, economic realities, and local planning efforts designed to address California’s ongoing housing shortage.

That doesn’t mean every project will be welcomed by every resident. New development often raises legitimate questions about traffic, infrastructure, parking, neighborhood character, and quality of life. Those conversations will continue, and they should. Public participation remains an important part of the planning process.

At the same time, it is important to recognize that cities like Glendale are operating within a legal framework established by the State of California. Laws such as the Housing Element Law, the Regional Housing Needs Allocation process, the Density Bonus Law, the Housing Accountability Act, and the Builder’s Remedy have fundamentally reshaped how residential development is planned and approved.

For developers, investors, and property owners, these changes create both opportunities and responsibilities. Understanding the legal landscape before purchasing property, submitting development applications, or objecting to a proposed project can make a meaningful difference in the outcome.

After all, real estate law isn’t just about buying and selling property. It’s about understanding the rules that determine what can be built, where it can be built, and how communities like Glendale will continue to evolve for decades to come.

And yes, if another apartment project appears on your morning commute next month, don’t be surprised. Around Glendale, that’s becoming almost as predictable as someone insisting they know the only place to get “real” lahmajoun. The difference is that apartment construction isn’t driven by neighborhood folklore—it’s driven by California law, careful planning, and a regulatory framework that continues to evolve.