PLANNING WATCH / PLAN-IT LOS ANGELES

My views are that the most immediate planning issue in Los Angeles is the inadequacy of the DEIR for the update of the Hollywoood Community plan since its comment period closes on June 3, 2011. 1) The plan's policy language is irrelevant. No decision makers ever look at it in making budget or land use decisions. 2) The focus should be opposition to sections of the DEIR which sanction broad increases in density through general plan amendments and zone changes because: -- They will become a template for dramatic increases in permitted densities in the remaining 34 community plans. -- There is no planning rationale for this up-planning and up-zoning based on the "growth neutrality" intent of the Genera Plan Framework Element. The city, according to the Framework, has enormous untapped potential for population and housing expansion based on established plan designations and zones. -- In fact, in the Hollywood Community Plan's implementation program up-zoning and up-...

LA NEIGHBORHOODS Dick Platkin The Mayor recently signed a new ordinance adopted by the Los Angeles City Council to halt the construction of McMansions on small hillside lots. These elected officials vow that this ordinance will stop the mansionization process in hillside areas. But will it? If the Hillside McMansion ordinance is filled with loopholes similar to those of the Baseline McMansion ordinance enacted several years ago for non-hillside areas, hillside residents should be very wary. This is because the Baseline ordinance still allowed McMansions to be constructed -- as long as they were less than about 4,500 square feet. Since this p rovision effectively green-lighted nearly all McMansions, especially in the R1-1 zone, the Mansionization process has continued unabated in Los Angeles. To begin, McMansions are those boxy, massively oversized, suburban-style spec houses appearing in older neighborhoods, such as Beverly Grove, where I live. They are all two stories and built by ...

A website covering the Infrastructure Coalition's lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles relating to the Annual Report on Growth and Infrastructure Home SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011 Infrastructure Lawsuit Appeal Filed Thursday, April 14, 2011 Infrastructure Lawsuit Appeal Filed FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact : Sabrina Venskus April 14, 2011 (213) 482-4200 venskus@lawsv.com Infrastructure Lawsuit Moves to Next Phase An appeal was filed today by several Los Angeles community groups to overturn a Los Angeles Superior Court judge’s denial of their landmark lawsuit to force the city to produce and implement its Annual Report on Growth and Infrastructure . Superior Court Judge John Torribio ruled the City of Los Angeles need not follow mandatory duties and mitigation measures set out in its General Plan Framework Element, the City’s “land use constitution”. The appeal requesting review of the decision was filed in the Second District Court by group attorneys Sabrina Venskus and Doug Carstens...