UN4LA News - October 2022
A monthly newsletter published by United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles.
UN4LA's mission is to bring communities together to plan for a sustainable future. Growth must be shaped by community engagement, not developer dollars.
NUMEROUS CONCERNS AS CITY OF L.A. PREPARES TO ADOPT NEW ZONING CODE
The City of LA is moving toward adoption of a new form-based zoning code, which will be a significant departure from the current code. For decades the City has prioritized use as the primary factor in its zoning code, but form-based code prioritizes physical form as its organizing principle, i.e. the scale of streets, types of city blocks, building facades and public space. No one would argue that the current code is outdated and overly-complex, but the City’s claim that the New Code will be simpler and more efficient is open to question.
The process of developing the New Code has been anything but simple and efficient. Inexplicably, the City is tying adoption of the New Code to approval of the Downtown Community Plan Update. This means that for the time being, the New Code will only apply to Downtown. According to City Planning, the New Code will be applied to other community plan areas as those plans are updated. Given the glacial pace that community plan updates have been proceeding at, this means that LA will be using two different zoning codes in different areas for years to come. And to make things even more complicated, the City has developed a different set of zoning code articles for the Boyle Heights Community Plan Update.
It also doesn’t inspire confidence that the version of the New Code recently released by City Planning does not include Article 13, Administration. Instead, we find four nearly blank pages with the note “Under Staff Development”. But this chapter is crucial, since it governs the project approval process. For reasons nobody at City Hall has adequately explained, Article 13, AKA the Processes & Procedures Ordinance, has been going through a completely separate process and is being considered apart from the rest of the New Code. There was widespread concern over a previous version of Processes and Procedures which seemed to give more authority to the Director of Planning and which had the potential to drastically reduce the number of projects that would require environmental review.
At over 1,100 pages, the CPC’s version of the New Code is a massive document, but if you want to be involved in the planning process that will shape your community, it’s important to take a stab at it. (The articles on Form and Development Standards are a good place to start.) This document will have a huge impact on how the City of LA grows in the future.
City of LA New Zoning Code: City Planning Commission Recommendation Draft
2022 HOMELESS COUNT: ARE WE REALLY MAKING ANY PROGRESS?
Some LA leaders expressed cautious optimism over the results of the 2022 Homeless Count, which seemed to show that the sharp increases seen in previous counts had slowed. The 2022 results estimated that 69,144 people were experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles County (a 4.1% rise from 2020), and 41,980 people were experiencing homelessness in the City of Los Angeles (a 1.7% increase from 2020). (The count was cancelled in 2021 due to the pandemic.)
Greater LA Homeless Count Suggests Pandemic Era Policies Prevented Surge in Homelessness
However, reporting by the LA Times has raised significant questions about the accuracy of the count. LAHSA’s numbers showed that there were no unsheltered people in the northwest part of Venice, but area residents have counted over 200 people living on the street. There were also extreme swings within specific LA City council districts. CD 3 saw an 80% increase, while CD 13 saw a 23% decrease. Council President Nury Martinez has asked for an audit of the count.
Los Angeles Homeless Count Raises Doubts about Accuracy. Is It Time for a New Way?
Meanwhile, Housing Is a Human Right asks why there are so many vacant Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) units in Downtown, when there are thousands of homeless people living in the area.
LA's Homeless Desperate for Housing, Why Are Many SROs Vacant?
A SLEW OF HOUSING BILLS FROM SACRAMENTO
Sacramento passed an avalanche of bills related to housing and homelessness during this legislative session. Over 40 different bills covered a wide range of approaches to housing in California, and no doubt everyone will find something to love and something to hate. Here are a few that have gotten attention: AB 1695 makes adaptive reuse of existing buildings permanently eligible for affordable housing loan programs; AB 2011 and SB 6 will allow developers to build residential projects on commercially zoned parcels in California cities; AB 2097 bars local governments from requiring parking spaces at projects close to transit stops.
For a complete list of the housing and homelessness bills passed by the legislature this session, check out the press release from the Governor’s Office.
Press Release from Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom
