Dear Angelenos:

September is an important month for Los Angeles. According to the Census Bureau’s latest projections, about half of the City’s residents are Latino/a. Though first settled by indigenous tribes like the Chumash and Tongva, the Alta California outpost grew larger by 1781. Populated by European, African, and Native American settlers, the Spanish governor named the settlement El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles, or The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels.

Today, we call this diverse community Los Angeles. 

As Angelenos, we recognize our strong Latino/a influence and culture not only on the day we celebrate LA’s birthday on September 4, but also during Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15), when, as a nation, we honor the cultures and contributions of U.S. Latinos and Hispanics in our community and beyond. 

Recently we unveiled our proposed Community Plan Update for Boyle Heights―a community that is nearly 93 percent Latino/a. Boyle Heights residents have given plenty of feedback and we’ve listened. The result of our outreach is a community-driven plan that aims to preserve the availability of multigenerational affordable housing, bolster small business opportunities to encourage fresh produce and access to corner grocery stores, like tienditas, and uphold our commitment to environmental justice by restricting heavy industrial use near our residential neighborhoods. 

Another reason September is important is that we are in the last few days to be counted in the 2020 Census. While the courts may rule on extending the deadline to complete the census through the end of October, it is important that Angelenos take part to be counted today. Earlier this month, staff volunteered their time to call residents in low self-reported response areas to encourage them to participate. 
 
We need to reverse the tide, especially in communities of color and low-income communities, where the reporting numbers have remained lower than the citywide average, and where response rates are lower than they were in 2010. If you haven’t already filled out the Census, please do so today and encourage your friends and family to do so as well!

Together, we are Planning4LA.

Sincerely,
Vince Bertoni,
Director of Planning
DEPARTMENT ACTIVITIES
Upcoming Planning 101 Training Series
This fall, City Planning will host Planning 101 training sessions focusing on the topics of project and community planning. The annual Planning 101 series provides a general overview of the core functions of planning in Los Angeles and serves as an educational resource for anyone interested in learning about the land use process, from local residents to newly elected neighborhood council board members.

In keeping with Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Safer at Home order, this year’s training will be offered virtually to minimize and stop the spread of COVID-19. There is one presentation about project planning and one presentation about community planning. While each presentation will be offered at different dates and times, the content will be the same every time. For additional information, email planning.liaison@lacity.org.

Upcoming Trainings: 

Project Planning
October 13, 2020 (RSVP English | RSVP Español
October 15, 2020 (RSVP English | RSVP Español
October 17, 2020 (RSVP English | RSVP Español

Community Planning
November 17, 2020 (RSVP English | RSVP Español)
November 19, 2020 (RSVP English | RSVP Español)
November 21, 2020 (RSVP English | RSVP Español)
Boyle Heights Community
Plan Update
On September 3, City Planning released the latest draft of the Boyle Heights Community Plan and updated zoning, along with the draft framework for the proposed Community Benefits Program. The Community Plan’s policies and zoning seek to safeguard existing residential neighborhoods, expand opportunities for new affordable housing units, prohibit heavy industrial activities near residential areas, and promote local jobs and small businesses. 

The proposed policies outlined in the Boyle Heights Community Plan address long-standing issues related to equity and access―balancing the preservation of existing households with the need to provide new housing opportunities. In keeping with that goal, the Department has developed stronger development standards to minimize the pressures of displacement.

In the coming months, City Planning will host a series of virtual outreach meetings, ranging from a public hearing to open houses, in order to provide more opportunities for feedback. Public comments on the latest drafts can be sent to Kiran Rishi at kiran.rishi@lacity.org.



New Compliance System: Home-Sharing Enforcement
At the beginning of September, City Planning launched an online system that makes it easier to identify and take down illegal short-term rental listings. The Application Programming Interface (API) is a first-of-its-kind program that serves several compliance functions. In addition to automating the collection and verification of short-term rental listings, the API serves as a secure master index of the City’s Home-Sharing registration and permits. 

API implements the agreement between the City and Airbnb, under which the City may take action against the platform for allowing unregistered or illegal listings to continue to advertise online. The program’s launch is the latest step in enforcing the City’s Home-Sharing regulations, which are intended to protect Los Angeles’s housing stock from wholesale conversion into short-term rentals.

City Planning expects the launch of API will further curtail illegal home-sharing during the months to come, based on promising early data. During the week of testing preceding API’s launch alone, City Planning removed over 1,350 ineligible listings.

OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT
Westside Community Plan Update: Office Hours 
In September, the Westside Community Plan team held office hours in support of the webinars hosted in July. The purpose of the office hours was to give local stakeholders an opportunity to learn more about the proposed updates to the West Los Angeles, Palms-Mar Vista-Del Rey, Venice, and Westchester-Playa Del Rey Community Plans, and to collect more community input during this latest round of outreach.

These plan updates, the cornerstone of Los Angeles’s long-range planning efforts, bring planners into close collaboration with neighborhood groups. Together, they develop and refine ideas that will guide and shape future development across the entire City. As priorities and needs evolve, keeping the Community Plans’ policies up to date takes on renewed importance, because the plans will inform the land use strategies and zoning recommendations that influence future development on the Westside. These strategies and recommendations have a range of objectives, from improving access to jobs and neighborhood-serving amenities to encouraging the production of affordable housing in balance with each neighborhood’s existing character and design.
 
City Planning has extended the public comment period through Thursday, October 15, 2020. For more information, email planning.thewestside@lacity.org, or sign up on the Department’s website to receive the latest news and updates on the Westside Community Plan Updates.

Slauson TNP Office Hours 
In September, the Slauson Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP) team hosted a series of virtual office hours to receive community feedback and answer questions about the Transit Neighborhood Plan’s draft concepts. These office hours provided an opportunity for planners to learn more about specific opportunities and issues from the local community, as well as receive suggestions on how the Plan’s draft concepts may be enhanced.
  
The Slauson TNP is part of the Department’s long-range planning efforts. It is exploring ways to reactivate the land adjacent to the abandoned rail tracks along the Slauson corridor, between West Boulevard on the west and Long Beach Avenue on the east. One of the overarching goals of the Slauson TNP is to update the existing land use regulations in order to better support emerging industries, with a particular focus on hiring and training the local workforce. 

At the end of each of the office hours, participants were asked to participate in a survey on the types of housing and jobs and design concepts they would like to see reflected along the proposed plan area, as part of a larger strategy aimed at providing entrepreneurship opportunities, with a particular focus on hiring and training of the local workforce. Future outreach for the proposed plan will occur later this year, along with a public hearing slated for 2021. For additional information, email andrew.pasillas@lacity.org or sign up online on the Department’s website to receive the latest news and updates on the Slauson TNP Update.

APA California Holds Virtual Conference
Earlier this month, the California Chapter of the American Planning Association held its annual conference online. The 2020 Virtual Conference, “State of Change,” featured presentations by Director of Planning Vince Bertoni and Senior City Planner Conni Pallini-Tipton. 

On September 15, Conni took part in the roundtable session “Financing Infrastructure for Infill.” She discussed Los Angeles’s infill strategy, pointing out that the City is exceeding its overall Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) housing production and on track to meet the Mayor’s housing goal of 100,000 new units by 2021, with exactly 97,403 units permitted as of April 30. She also described City Planning’s measures to fund infrastructure through new and modified fees, such as the Park Fee and the Affordable Housing Linkage Fee.

The following day, Vince participated in the panel discussion “Planning for the Future,” a look at planning for a post-pandemic world. He shared insights into what planners can and should do to address the impacts of the pandemic while continuing to move our communities towards a more equitable and climate-resilient future, including dispelling the myths of density and building safe housing near major transit. Vince emphasized that, rather than fleeing our urban centers, we need to continue our work to make cities safer and healthier overall, and that planning is crucial to the health of our communities.
TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT
This month, City Planning unveiled a new online dashboard to monitor, track, and report the workload and case processing times for development projects that require the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR). These are some of the most diverse and large-scale projects in Los Angeles. As of August 2020, the Department is processing and reviewing 66 active EIRs. On average, each takes approximately 23 months from the initial filing to finalizing the document for City Planning Commission’s consideration.

The EIR process—the most lengthy and complex form of environmental review—entails the preparation of an Initial Study, a Draft EIR, and a Final EIR, which require public review and regular coordination between the applicant, the environmental consultant team, and the City. Generally, those documents are under review by the Department for only six to nine months (or 30 to 50 percent of the total processing time). During the majority of the process, the preparation of an EIR is in the hands of the applicant and consultant team, who work together to produce the technical reports and respond to the Department’s comments.

AUGUST METRICS
Hearing and Engagement
Development Trends
After a steep drop in applications filed this spring, the rate of new applications continues to stabilize. In the month of August, applications filed were 8.7 percent higher than in July. In contrast, between March and May, new applications dropped an average of 14 percent each month. The 599 applications filed in August are only 8 percent fewer than the 653 average applications filed monthly in 2019. The large increase in units approved in August is due to the approval of the redevelopment of Times Mirror Square at 100 S. Broadway in Downtown LA, representing 1,092 market-rate apartment units.
COMMUNITY PLAN UPDATES
  • Extended the comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and draft Plan to December 4, 2020, providing additional opportunity for public comment
  • Released updated draft Zoning, Plan Text, Land Use Map, and Community Benefits Program in August 2020
  • Released Draft Environmental Impact Report in August 2020 for a 120-day comment period
  • Conducted office hours in January and February 2020
  • Released Draft Zoning in October 2019
  • Released Draft Plan and Land Use Map in July 2019
  • Preparing Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
  • Completed Scoping process in September 2019
  • Released Draft Land Use Concepts in May 2019
  • Preparing for Fall 2020 Public Release of Draft Plan
  • Preparing Environmental Impact Report 
  • Released online Draft Land Use Concepts in 2018
  • EIR Scoping Meeting planned for 2021
  • Conducted a series of Office Hours in September 2020
  • Concepts Workshops conducted in July 2020
#THROWBACK
A classic image of Los Angeles is the Hollywood Sign stretching across the face of Mount Lee in the Hollywood Hills. The sign has now been part of the Los Angeles image for 97 years. When first erected in 1923 by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, it read “Hollywoodland,” and served as an advertisement for the Hollywoodland real estate development project. Initially, the Hollywood Sign was only intended as a temporary form of electrified advertisement. 

It was, however, still standing by the late 1940s, when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce saved the sign by pledging to maintain and take ownership of it. The new owners decided to drop the “land” in “Hollywoodland.” In the decades that followed, maintenance of the iconic sign lapsed, prompting locals to restore it in the 1970s.

Ultimately, a committee led by magazine publisher Hugh Hefner and hard rock musician Alice Cooper raised funding to rebuild the sign. Through their efforts, the sign was preserved for future generations to visit. In 1973, it was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument, and it will forever be a memorable image of Los Angeles.
PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
In September, the Los Angeles City Council approved a new four-story, mixed-use development with 39 units of Permanent Supportive Housing at 2467 South Lincoln Boulevard in the Venice Community Plan area―another Measure HHH-funded project designed to provide additional units of supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness.

The project includes 4,441 square feet of supportive services, with onsite offices to support three full-time professional social services staff members, as well as multiple service partners that will offer integrated services for tenants. The project will include open space for a public plaza, a second-floor central courtyard, and deck and rooftop gardens on the fourth floor.
QUESTION OF THE MONTH
UPCOMING CALENDAR
Consistent with Mayor Garcetti's directive on COVID-19, City Planning is conducting meetings remotely by telephone and Zoom. See the Events Calendar for a full list of upcoming events.
October 13
October 13
October 15
October 15
October 17
October 17
October 22
Hollywood Community Plan Update webinar (registration coming soon)
LOS ANGELES CITY PLANNING
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