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Dear Angelenos,
In the 1950s, an LAPD police officer purchased a modest home in Leimert Park with the assistance of an intermediary from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), as housing covenants prevented Black families from buying property in what was at the time, a nearly all white neighborhood.
The owners were Tom and Ethel Bradley, the former of whom ultimately became the first Black Mayor of Los Angeles. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at an event led by CD 10 Councilwoman Heather Hutt commemorating the site as a Historic-Cultural-Monument, one of six buildings that received this designation as part of African American Historic Places, Los Angeles (AAHPLA). The project celebrates the City’s Black heritage. In partnership with the Getty Conservation Institute and the City Planning’s Office of Historic Resources (OHR), the team has been hard at work to make this project happen. The project’s next phase includes expanding the historic preservation framework for African American history in Los Angeles and launching cultural preservation strategies with three local communities: the Central Avenue corridor in Southeast LA, the Venice Oakwood neighborhood, and Pacoima in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles City Planning remains committed to serving all Angelenos with respect and human dignity. It’s important that stories from our city’s history are not erased from our collective narrative. City Planning views these efforts as more important now than ever.
In September, OHR is launching HistoricPlacesLA Revealed: Latino Los Angeles, which will spotlight the rich history of LA’s Latino communities. Stay tuned for more.
We’re about solutions. We are planning for people: together, we are #Planning4LA.
Sincerely,
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Vince Bertoni,
Director of Planning
| | | | A Growing Team - Office of Forest Management Joins City Planning | The City’s Office of Forest Management (OFM), formerly under the umbrella of the Board of Public Works, joined Los Angeles City Planning on July 1, 2025 as part of a citywide restructuring due to the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 budget. The OFM oversees the development, implementation, and tracking of data-driven decision-making for Los Angeles’ urban forest, which includes trees on both public and private property. The two-member OFM team will continue to work collaboratively across many City departments, advising on a variety of urban forestry topics. However, OFM’s main focus is on long-range planning for trees and the urban forest, which includes thinking about the role trees play in public health and resilience, in biodiversity and ecosystem functions, and in making the City’s neighborhoods more inviting and walkable. OFM’s leadership in guiding the City’s urban forest management also includes a particular focus and collaboration with research partners on tree canopy equity and ensuring that low-canopied areas that experience vulnerability related to heat and poor air quality are prioritized. OFM is currently working to complete the City's first Urban Forest Management Plan (UFMP), which will guide how the City plans for and manages its trees. | | | | Harbor LA Community Plans Update | |
On Aug. 26, 2025, the Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) unanimously approved the Harbor Los Angeles Community Plans, which includes updates to the Wilmington-Harbor City Community Plan (Council File No. 25-0774) and Harbor Gateway Community Plan (Council File No. 25-0775) and amendments to the new Zoning Code.
The Harbor LA Plans are environmental justice plans, focused on creating equitable, healthy and complete neighborhoods. They reflect years of community partnership and engagement. These plans seek to address many of the challenges facing the Harbor communities, such as environmental justice, housing demand and affordability, and a shifting economy, through strategies that guide thoughtful growth. The proposed plans strive to address the area’s legacy of contamination and its longstanding industrial-residential conflicts, all while maintaining the critical Port-related industrial base of the Harbor Region.
With the PLUM Committee’s approval, the Plans will move forward to be considered by the full City Council for adoption.
| | | | City Planning and LADOT Launch a New Study to Assess Coastal Access in Venice | Last month, Los Angeles City Planning launched a collaboration with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and Walker Consultants to prepare a study to assess public access to the Venice Coastal Zone area, including parking and other mobility options. The analysis will include the observation of outdoor dining areas under the Al Fresco program and their impacts to public coastal access. This study will assist restaurants with temporary Al Fresco authorizations obtain a Coastal Development Permit (CDP) in order to transition into the permanent Al Fresco program by providing a list of mitigation measures to address impacts to public coastal access. The study will be completed in 2026 and is available to track through Council File No. Council File 20-1074-S5. This effort is an example of how City Planning supports small businesses as part of Mayor Karen Bass’ Executive Directive No. 4 - Identifying Barriers to Small Business Creation, Development and Growth. | | African American Historic Places LA Celebrates Six Buildings Commemorating the City’s Black Heritage | | City Planning Associate Andrez Parra (OHR), Getty Marrow Intern Arvin Ferdows, City Planning Associate Rafael Fontes, GCI Senior Specialists Gail Ostergren and Sara Lardinois (GCI), Toney Bradley, Councilwoman Heather Hutt, Lorraine Bradley, Senior Architect City Planning Lambert Giessinger, Principal City Planner Ken Bernstein, Cultural Heritage Commission Vice President Gail Kennard, AAHPLA Project Leader Rita Cofield, Getty Research Institute Curator LeRonn Brooks, City Planner Melissa Jones, Getty Graduate Intern Tahlor Cleveland, CHC President Barry Milofsky, Director of Planning Vince Bertoni, and City Planner Cameron Carrasquillo. | | |
Earlier this month, Councilwoman Heather Hutt, the City Planning Office of Historic Resources, members of the Getty Conservation Institute and community members gathered at the Tom and Ethel Bradley residence in Leimert Park to celebrate the designation of six buildings that recently received Historic-Cultural Monument status as part of African American Historic Places, Los Angeles (AAHPLA). The event was launched at the site of the home of LA’s first African American Mayor Tom Bradley.
“Each of these first designated landmarks are not only significant places of history and meaning individually, but collectively they showcase broader themes that give our communities insight into the rich and layered story of African Americans in Los Angeles,” said Director of Planning Vince Bertoni.
The office of Councilwoman Heather Hutt (CD 10) led the event, which included tours of two additional sites in the AAHPLA project within her South LA district, including the St. Elmo’s Village arts collective and Jewel’s Catch One, an historic nightclub that was a critical safe haven for Black and LGBTQ+ communities. At each site, a bronze plaque was revealed commemorating the site’s Historic-Cultural Monument status.
The event also marked the beginning of the next phase of the project, which includes expanding the historic preservation framework for African American history in Los Angeles and launching cultural preservation strategies with three local communities: the Central Avenue corridor in Southeast LA, the Venice Oakwood neighborhood, and Pacoima in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
Gail Kennard, Vice-President of the City’s Cultural Heritage Commission, also delivered remarks. At the Tom and Ethel Bradley home, she commended Mayor Bradley’s daughters Lorraine and Toney for preserving the home, which served as a center of political and social life in the City. She also expressed gratitude to the Getty for teaming with the City to help make this project possible.
“It’s not just about African American history. It’s about the history of the whole City of Los Angeles. We’re here to celebrate and applaud that history,” Commissioner Kennard said. “As one preservationist told me, ‘Extraordinary things can happen in ordinary places.’ We come together today to honor that legacy and to inspire the next generation of people that this is possible. You can start from humble beginnings and you can make a great contribution to the City, to the state, and the world.”
| | Ongoing Office Hours - Health and Environmental Justice Element Preliminary Draft | | |
City Planning recently released the Health and Environmental Justice Element Preliminary Draft for public review and feedback. The draft goals and policies are a culmination of significant research, collaboration, and community engagement efforts, as well as the contributions by the Environmental Justice Working Group. Virtual Office Hours will be held on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays in September 2025, and thirty-minute lunchtime appointments for questions and comments may be reserved here.
With the City's adopted budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026 including the elimination of the Health and Environmental Justice Element Update work program, this work will be stopped at the end of the summer. A record of the community feedback received will be maintained for future use in the event staff resources are restored and the program is restarted. We thank you for your continued support. For more information, visit Pln.LA/EJ-Health.
| | Project applications filed increased by 19% and completed applications increased by 22% between June and July 2025. Proposals for affordable housing units increased by 205%, while the number of affordable units approved by Los Angeles City Planning increased from 869 units in June to 954 units in July, representing an increase of 10% month-over-month. | | | | - The City Council adopted the Boyle Heights Community Plan on Sept. 25, 2024. The plan’s final ordinances were referred to the City Attorney to be finalized.
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- City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) heard the Harbor LA Community Plans on Aug. 26, 2025, where they recommended approval of the Harbor Community Plans; the Plans await full City Council consideration.
- Prepared the LOD and City Planning Commission (CPC) recommended exhibits, and transmitted to the Mayor for approval on Jun. 10, 2025; following the Mayor’s approval, the plans were transmitted to the City Council’s PLUM Committee for adoption; this begins the process of being scheduled for a PLUM hearing.
- Published the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) on Jun. 6, 2025.
- The CPC considered and recommended for approval the proposed Harbor LA Community Plans on Feb. 8, 2024 and modified the Wilmington-Harbor City Community Plan on Jan. 23, 2025.
| | | | - Staff is drafting zoning and finalizing draft policy documents to release to the public by the end of the year.
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- Staff is preparing revised Land Use maps and an Interactive StoryMap to address feedback and comments received during outreach conducted in 2024.
- Preparing an overview of 2024 outreach and key topics and themes we heard.
- Preparing to conduct a scoping meeting this fall.
| | TRANSIT NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS | | | |
- Finalizing proposed zoning with MIIP compliant form districts.
- Preparing for an information session and public hearing later this year to include detailed GPLU and Zoning maps to be posted on the website in advance of the meeting.
- Proposed updates to the City’s Enhanced Networks and limited street redesignations and associated environmental review.
| | Recent Historic Cultural Monuments | | The Cultural Heritage Commission and City Council designated several new Historic-Cultural Monuments (HCMs, or local historic landmarks) during early 2025. Among Los Angeles’s newest HCMs include the following: | | | | |
Historic-Cultural Monument #1320
Built in 1925; Designated April 2025
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The Amasis Apartments is a two-story apartment building in Hollywood and is an excellent and rare example of an Egyptian Revival architectural style multi-family residential building. The building was designed and constructed by the architect/builder John Manley Close, one of the only Los Angeles-based architects that repeatedly utilized the Egyptian Revival style.
Nomination Form
| | | | Historic-Cultural Monument #1321
Built in 1926; Designated April 2025 | |
Designed by architect Raphael Nicolais, the Maycrest Bungalow Court is an excellent and highly intact example of a bungalow court designed in the Tudor Revival architectural style in El Sereno. The property was acquired by Caltrans in 1968 to be demolished for the proposed State Route 710 freeway expansion, which was not completed; it was transferred to the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles in 2024.
Nomination Form
| | | | Historic-Cultural Monument #1322
Built in 1954; Designated April 2025 | |
The William Mellenthin Birdhouse Apartments are a rare and excellent example of a Mid-Century, one-story court designed and constructed in the Traditional Ranch architectural style by William Mellenthin in the Valley Glen neighborhood. The property is the only known extant multi-family residential property designed by Mellenthin, a prolific builder of single-family home tracts across the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles who popularized the inclusion of dovecotes or “birdhouse” designs on residential properties.
Nomination Form
| | | | Historic-Cultural Monument #1323
Built in 1929; Designated June 2025 | |
Designed by master architect S. Charles Lee, who was best known for his design of movie palaces, the Du Barry is an excellent example of an apartment tower designed in the French Eclectic architectural style in Wilshire Center-Koreatown.
Nomination Form
| | 4773 West Hollywood Boulevard | | |
The City Planning Commission (CPC) recently approved the construction of a six (6)-story, mixed-use building in the Hollywood Community Plan area of Council District 4, located at 4773 West Hollywood Boulevard. The proposed project will comprise 86 dwelling units, with nine units restricted to Very Low Income Households, and will also contain approximately 2,596 square feet of commercial floor area. The proposed project includes 10,086 square feet of required usable open space, comprising 5,353 square feet for common open space areas (such as courtyards, a recreation room, and a 6th-floor outdoor deck) and 4,733 square feet for private open space areas (private balconies).
Staff Report
| | September City Planning Commission Meetings | | | |
View agendas and future meeting dates for the City Planning Commission (CPC), Cultural Heritage Commission (CHC), and all Area Planning Commissions (APCs) by visiting Commissions, Boards, Hearings.
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CITY PLANNING
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