PROCESSES & PROCEDURES: BETTER PLANNING OR MORE PROFITEERING?
The City of LA's re-write of the Zoning Code continues to move forward, albeit in a confusing, piecemeal fashion. On June 1, the Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee voted to recommend approval of the Processes & Procedures Ordinance, which is actually just one chapter (Chapter 13, Administration) of the proposed New Zoning Code. According to the Department of City Planning, the Ordinance is, "One key component of a larger effort to comprehensively revise the City's Zoning Code to become more responsive and accessible to the public." But some members of the public who have studied the Ordinance believe that it actually does the opposite.
Since we’re on the subject of being “responsive and accessible to the public”, it might be a good idea to talk about the meeting where the PLUM Committee gave the Ordinance a thumbs-up. It started off with Chair Marqueece Harris-Dawson announcing that the committee would allow 60 minutes for public comment, but in fact, Harris-Dawson cut off public comment after only 53 minutes, when there were still a number of commenters in the virtual cue, some of whom had called in specifically to talk about the proposed Ordinance.
It’s also hard to see how this “reorganization” will make the project approval process more accessible to the public when it moves some land use authority from elected officials to the Department of City Planning. Under the proposed Ordinance, unelected bureaucrats will make decisions regarding project “adjustments”, “alternative compliance”, CUPs and HPOZs. It contains no requirement to notify Neighborhood Councils of new project applications in their area, and only requires that NCs be notified of public hearings, of which there will be far fewer once the New Zoning Code is adopted. Far from making the approval process more accessible to the public, the Ordinance seems designed to help developers push their projects through more quickly.
You might ask why this one chapter is being pushed to adoption in advance of the rest of the New Zoning Code. City Planning will tell you it’s all about being more “responsive and accessible to the public,” but some observers believe it has more to do with streamlining project approvals. Aside from asking why this chapter is being prioritized over the rest of the New Zoning Code, you might ask why City Planning is updating the Code when it hasn’t bothered to update parts of the General Plan that were adopted decades ago. Many elements of the General Plan are over 20 years old, including Air Quality (1992), Safety (1996), Infrastructure (1972), Open Space (1973), Public Facilities & Services (1969), and Noise (1999). In other words, while the City of LA’s continued growth is exacerbating inequality, putting greater burdens on our infrastructure and further straining public services, City Hall hasn’t even bothered to address planning fundamentals.
If the Department of City Planning has failed to update the elements of the General Plan that should provide the foundation for all land use decisions, how can the New Zoning Code provide a credible framework for future development? Is the Processes & Procedures Ordinance really about being more responsive to the needs of the public? Or is it, in fact, about being more responsive to the needs of developers?
