PLANNING WATCH / PLAN-IT LOS ANGELES

No More McMansions in Los Angeles Breaking news! Reform is finally getting started on the city’s failed Baseline Mansionization Ordinance and Baseline Hillside Ordinance (BMO/BHO). The   Planning Department has now published its draft amendments.   To read the full draft, go to the web page of the city’s Office of Historic Resources; click on Updates and then on BMO/BHO Draft Amendments.   Or follow the link from our website.   (Address at the bottom of this page.) The timetable The Planning Department is aiming for Council adoption of the amendments sometime late next summer, following a comment period, environmental analysis, more public comment, a staff report, and hearings before the City Planning Commission and the Council’s P lanning & L and U se M anagement (PLUM) committee.    The first step is a series of public outreach meetings held in different parts of the city.   The outreach meetings are coming up fast :   Wednesday, December 2 - Mid-City Thur

Mobility Plan 2035: Is the Road to Hell Paved with Good Intention? By Dick Platkin* (Published by CityWatchLA on Nov. 12, 2015) In general, the public pays little attention to the City of LA’s legally required General Plan, including its mandatory and optional Elements.   But the required Circulation Element, called the Mobility Plan or MP 2035, is different, at least among that small minority of Angelenos who care about local government.   This might be why the Los Angeles Times and KPCC have regularly reported on the Mobility Plan. I find this new General Plan Element problematic, but not for the reasons presented publicly and privately by the Element’s critics, including those who have filed a lawsuit to overturn it. To understand why MP 2035 is problematic, let’s take a broad look at LA’s transportation realities: ·       Los Angeles continues to have the worst traffic congestion and the worst air in the entire United States. ·       The city’s bui