SB 684 & SB 1123 · Los Angeles
Two state laws now let a qualifying Los Angeles parcel be split into as many as ten lots and ten homes — approved ministerially, without a hearing. The statute is straightforward. Whether your lot clears it, and whether the result pencils, is the harder question.
What Actually Changed
SB 684 passed in 2023 and applied to multifamily-zoned land. SB 1123 extended it to vacant single-family lots, and together with AB 130 took effect on 1 July 2025.
The mechanism matters more than the headline. A qualifying subdivision is reviewed ministerially — no public hearing, no discretionary findings, no design review board deciding whether it likes your project. The city checks the application against objective standards and approves it or does not.
For a landowner, the practical change is not that ten homes became legal. It is that the approval stopped being a negotiation. A discretionary path in Los Angeles can absorb a year or more and still end in a denial. A ministerial one is a checklist with a clock on it.
City of Los Angeles guidance sits under its Streamlined Housing Review Application. Los Angeles County issued its own ministerial-approval guidance for SB 684, SB 1123 and AB 130 on 1 June 2026. Unincorporated county parcels follow the county track, not the city one — they are different processes.
The Screen
Both tracks cap the project at ten parcels and ten units on an urban infill site under five acres, substantially surrounded by existing development. Past that, the zone decides.
The lot must be vacant. This is the constraint that disqualifies most inquiries — a parcel with a house on it does not qualify under this track, whatever the house’s condition.
Site no larger than 1.5 acres. Resulting parcels at least 1,200 square feet. Average unit size across the project capped at 1,200 square feet.
Site up to five acres. Resulting parcels at least 600 square feet — small-lot subdivision in the literal sense.
Average unit size capped at 1,750 square feet, which is a materially different building than the single-family track allows.
One off-street parking space per principal dwelling unit. It may be uncovered and unenclosed, which matters more than it sounds — it frees the site plan from structured parking.
The site must be urban infill and substantially surrounded by urban uses. Fringe and undeveloped-edge parcels generally fail this.
Summarized from the statutes as amended and in effect. Eligibility turns on the specific parcel, its zoning, and current city or county interpretation — this is a screen, not a legal opinion, and it is not a substitute for counsel.
Feasibility
Most published guidance on these bills stops at eligibility. That is the easy half. Here is what decides whether a split is worth doing — and what we look at before taking one on.
In a single-family zone the 1,200 square-foot average is the binding constraint, not the lot minimum. It is an average across the project, so one larger home forces the others smaller. Ten units at that average is a fundamentally different product from what most LA single-family neighborhoods transact — and it has to be underwritten against that market, not against the market for the house next door.
The single-family track requires an unimproved lot. A teardown does not qualify by demolishing first in the hope of resetting the clock — sequencing here has real consequences and is worth confirming before anyone touches the site.
Removing discretion removes the hearing, not the work. Objective standards still have to be met, utilities still have to be brought in, and mapping still takes time. The gain is certainty and a shorter tail, not a shortcut.
Each resulting parcel carries its own service connections, its own frontage obligations, and its own closing. Per-unit soft costs on a ten-lot split do not divide the way they do on a single residence, and a feasibility study that treats them as if they do will be wrong in the direction that hurts.
A hillside parcel that clears the statute on paper can fail on grading, access, and caisson cost. In Los Angeles the site conditions frequently matter more to the outcome than the entitlement path does.
Working With Us
That is all we need to run the screen. We check zoning, parcel size, vacancy status, and whether the site reads as urban infill — and tell you plainly if it does not qualify.
Unit count, average-size math, parking layout, utilities, and what the finished product would realistically be worth in that specific neighborhood. This is where most sites either firm up or fall over.
Design to the objective standards, prepare the parcel or tract map, and take it through the ministerial track — city or county, whichever governs the parcel.
Entitled land is a saleable asset in its own right. You can build it with us, hold it, or sell it entitled. We will tell you which we would do in your position.
Good Questions. Straight Answers.
SB 684 came first, in 2023, and applied to multifamily-zoned land. SB 1123 amended it in 2024 to extend the same streamlined path to vacant single-family lots. In practice they are treated as one program — along with AB 130 — and took effect together on 1 July 2025.
SB 9 allows a single-family lot to be split in two, with up to two units on each. SB 684 and SB 1123 go considerably further — up to ten lots and ten units — but impose stricter conditions, most notably that a single-family parcel must be vacant and that average unit size is capped. Different tools for different sites; which applies depends on the parcel.
Not under the single-family track, which requires a vacant lot. If the parcel is zoned multifamily the vacancy requirement does not apply in the same way. Send us the address and we will tell you which track, if any, the property falls under.
It means it cannot be denied on discretionary grounds — no hearing, no subjective design findings. An application that fails the objective standards can still be rejected. The certainty comes from knowing the standards in advance, not from the outcome being guaranteed.
Both. If a site works and you would rather not carry the project, we buy directly — see Sell Your Home. If you want to develop it, we design, permit, build and represent the finished homes. See Develop With TDG.
Ground-up new construction carries the TDG Builder Warranty under California SB 800. Remodels and conversions are not covered; workmanship on those is governed by the applicable construction contract. See the TDG Builder Warranty page for full terms.
Send us the address. We’ll come back with whether it qualifies, what it would support, and what the finished homes should be worth.