Inglewood officials this week kicked off the formal environmental review process for a sweeping update to the city's general plan, a document that will guide growth through 2050 and could bring six-story mixed-use buildings to stretches of Centinela Avenue, La Brea Avenue and downtown. The plan, branded Next Level Inglewood, has been in the works since 2025 and is scheduled for adoption in spring 2027.
The city officially opened a 30-day public review period on Tuesday for the Notice of Preparation of a Program Environmental Impact Report, according to the City of Inglewood. Public comments will be accepted through October 15, and a scoping meeting on the update is set for October 1 from 6 to 8 pm at Inglewood City Hall's Community Room A. The environmental review is a required step under state law before the plan can move forward, and it follows years of community input, including a draft land use plan that went before the Inglewood City Council on August 11 after incorporating feedback from open houses and the General Plan Advisory Committee.
A Comprehensive Rewrite, Not Just a Zoning Tweak
As Urbanize LA reports, the update includes revisions to the land use element aimed at bringing zoning rules into consistency with current conditions, particularly around Hollywood Park and the city's major commercial corridors. The general plan update spans nine total elements, including circulation, conservation, economic development, environmental justice, housing, land use, noise, open space and safety, according to the city. It's organized around 12 focus areas citywide, per Urbanize LA's reporting.
This marks the city's first comprehensive overhaul of its Land Use Element since 1980, a document that has only been amended piecemeal since then — in 1986, in 2009 to accommodate the Hollywood Park mixed-use project, and again in 2016. Inglewood has since experienced the arrival of SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome, transformations the current framework was never built to fully address.
Where the Density Would Land
Under the proposal, zone changes would allow strip malls, parking lots and other underused sites near downtown to be redeveloped into mixed-use buildings combining housing and neighborhood-serving retail. In northern Inglewood, along focus areas near Centinela Avenue and La Brea Avenue, proposed buildings would range from three to six stories, with base densities of up to 100 residential units per acre, according to Urbanize LA.
Central Inglewood focus areas along La Brea Avenue and Manchester Boulevard would see similarly scaled buildings of three to six stories, with development centered on properties surrounding Centinela Hospital. Plans near Prairie Avenue would propose commercial uses meant to complement SoFi Stadium, Intuit Dome and Hollywood Park, while areas south of Century Boulevard would call for mixed-use buildings similar to those permitted in central Inglewood.
Western Inglewood, which overlaps with the LAX Land Use Plan, would not see the same density increases; plans there call for lower-scale residential and commercial uses instead.
Housing Stock and State Planning
The density increases are tied directly to state housing mandates. California's 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment covers 2021 through 2029, according to the City of Inglewood.
As of 2020, Inglewood had 39,148 total housing units, with approximately 26,696 units, or 68%, in structures with two or more units, according to figures compiled by CondoSignal. The city has already moved to speed up approvals for that kind of development: in January 2025, the City Council introduced Ordinance No. 25-04, establishing citywide Objective Design Standards that streamline ministerial approvals for multi-family and mixed-use projects.
Transit and Olympic Pressure in the Background
The zoning overhaul is unfolding alongside a separate, $261 million transit push tied to the 2028 Summer Olympics. In August, the City Council approved a public-private partnership with Elevate Inglewood Development Corporation with a $261 million design-and-construction budget for mobility hubs and streetscape upgrades associated with the Inglewood Transit Connector, which includes preservation of right-of-way for a future high-capacity automated people mover; the report separately describes current links to Metro's K and C Lines, according to Mass Transit.
City officials used the June and July FIFA World Cup matches at SoFi Stadium as a real-world test for dedicated bus lanes and signal priority systems designed to align with the general plan's mobility goals. But the transit build-out carries its own costs: CBS Los Angeles reported that construction of the elevated Inglewood Transit Connector is expected to displace more than a dozen local businesses along its route through downtown, a friction point that will likely shadow discussions of the broader land use changes as they move toward adoption next spring.
