PLANNING WATCH / PLAN-IT LOS ANGELES

On Wednesday, November 10, 2010 , the Los Angeles City Council adopted the new Community Plan Implementation Overlay District Ordinance (CPIO) -- without hearing any public testimony . This new ordinance is enabling legislation which allows the City of Los Angeles to ostensibly implement a Community Plan through an overlay zoning ordinance covering an entire Community Plan area. In addition, a CPIO can have sub-areas as small as a single lot (i.e., spot zoning). But would such local zoning ordinances actually implement a Community Plan? The answer is: hardly at all. The title of this new legislation misleads the public, in particular because, in practice, CPIO’s could usher in many zoning and environmental changes to local communities which conflict with Community Plans. This is because the nexus between a CPIO and the Community Plan it purports to implement is tenuous. In fact, the Council’s enabling legislation contains no criteria to determine if a C...

The Los Angeles Department of City Planning is currently preparing three related sets of detailed urban design guidelines. They separately address future residential, commercial, and industrial projects. Once approved by the City Planning Commission, these guidelines will become an appendix to the General Plan Framework Element, the backbone of the Los Angeles General Plan. These guidelines are not binding, but would be advisory for discretionary actions (e.g., plan amendments, zone changes) for which there are no approved or adopted design guidelines otherwise available to decision makers. Full copies of these guidelines, including background information, can found at City Planning’s web-site: http://cityplanning.lacity.org/code_studies/CDOGuidelines/CDG_FAQ.pdf As I explain below, the preparation and on-going public information campaign to promote these Design Guidelines is baffling for at least three reasons, and I have little doubt that readers will find additional wrinkles regar...