Excerpts from Dept of City Planning February Newsletter: Expediting Processing Section, Density Bonus Memo, Online Application Program, Development Trends, Westside Community Plan Update
Dear Angelenos:
Technology has kept us connected, responsive, and functional in the midst of a pandemic. We have adapted to the necessity for social distancing by moving many of our services online, making it possible to file applications, pay fees, attend hearings, and provide feedback remotely.
City Planning’s new Online Application System (OAS) is part of this shift. The OAS makes it possible to take advantage of the Department’s development services from any place with an internet connection. In the short term, the program keeps critical services available to local businesses while also minimizing the need for in-person visits during the pandemic. Over the months and years ahead, the OAS will form part of the digital infrastructure that allows us to move more planning services online, in the interest of convenience and transparency.
While there is still work to be done to close the “digital divide,” so all Angelenos can
enjoy access to our web-based services, we are excited about the possibilities opening
up through digital outreach, online filing, GIS maps, data analytics, and more to come.
Together, we are Planning for LA.
Vince Bertoni,
Director of Planning
Expedited Processing Section
To support local economic investment, City Planning has recently made more application types eligible for processing by the Expedited Processing Section (EPS). Since its establishment in 2003, the EPS has helped further the City’s housing and economic development objectives while maintaining a streamlined review process.
The EPS now accepts applications for projects located within certain plan overlays, Redevelopment Plan Areas, and Coastal Transportation Corridor Specific Plans. Small-scale residential and mixed-use projects with 10 or fewer units can also take advantage of EPS’s services.
Other planning applications, including those for the adaptive reuse of buildings, stand-alone alcohol entitlements for restaurants, and select entitlements for commercial and industrial projects, are also able to request EPS's services. For more information, contact plnexpedited.intake@lacity.org.
Density Bonus Memo
City Planning has issued a memo outlining the ministerial review of Density Bonus projects requesting on-menu incentives, consistent with State law. To facilitate housing production, the Department will ministerially process all new applications requesting on-menu incentives, as well as those in the pipeline.
Density Bonus is a State-mandated housing incentive program created to promote mixed-income housing with onsite affordable units. Developers who meet the requirements of the State law are entitled to receive Density Bonus and other benefits as a matter of right. For more information, contact the Housing Services Unit at dcpphp@lacity.org.
City Planning Discusses Online Application System with LA CityView 35
Senior City Planner Sarah Molina-Pearson recently appeared on LA CityView 35 to discuss the expanded Online Application System (OAS). The OAS portal makes it easy for applicants to stay Safer at Home during the COVID-19 pandemic by submitting City Planning applications, as well as payments, online.
Users can submit applications online 24/7, 365 days a year from the comfort and safety of their home or office. The portal also increases transparency in the permitting process, allowing users to monitor the status of their applications in real time and communicate with the assigned planners.
The OAS currently accepts 16 different applications. Recent improvements have focused on facilitating administrative approvals and permit sign-offs that previously required a trip to City Hall or one of the Development Services Centers. Making these application types available online is an easy and effective way to assist local businesses during the pandemic. In the coming months, City Planning will add more services to the OAS, including administrative clearances for Accessory Dwelling Units.
Development Trends
In January, the number of applications filed and completed was on par with the number of applications filed and completed during the same time last year, before the Safer at Home orders. Overall, the number of applications filed has increased, on average, 4% over the last six months.
COMMUNITY PLAN UPDATES
Planning for EIR Scoping Meeting in Early 2021
Conducted a series of Office Hours in September 2020
Released Draft Concepts and held virtual open house webinars in July 2020
Focusing future development projects near public transportation hubs in large cities like Los Angeles has the potential to vastly increase transit ridership, which, in turn, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion. Less cars on the road then minimizes commute times that can result in healthier, friendlier, and more livable cities for everyone by creating more opportunities for safe pedestrian activity.
Plans for transit-oriented neighborhoods in Los Angeles typically embrace building designs that include a variety of functions and purposes that enable access to public transit by making it easier and more convenient to use. Known as Transit Oriented Communities, this style of development is intended to expand mobility options for greater numbers of people; improve the livability of the City; reinforce neighborhood character and identity; and generate greater economic opportunity for all residents.
In partnership with Metro, City Planning launched the Transit Neighborhood Plans (TNP) program in 2012 to encourage the growth of livable communities and employment centers around the region’s expanding transit network. The TNP program supports the Department’’s efforts to enhance access to transit, promote housing options for all income levels, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote sustainable development, as it reinforces the goals of the General Plan Framework Element and all 35 individual Community Plans by promoting high-quality building design and a mix of uses within a half-mile radius of transit stops.
By increasing development intensity around transit stations and corridors, the City can better incorporate travel modes like walking, rail, bike, bus, and other micro mobility options. The wide array of travel choices can reduce the City’s dependence on cars as well as reduce the overall need to travel far distances for everyday needs.
When Measure M passed with 72 percent voter approval in 2016 as the most ambitious mass transit expansion project in Los Angeles County history, City Planning sharpened its focus on concentrating infill development around major corridors and transit stations, primarily within commercial, multifamily, and some industrial areas through the TNP program. TNPs currently in development around existing and future transit corridors include the Orange Line TNP, Slauson Corridor, the Regional Connector, and the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Comprehensive planning efforts are also underway with updates to the General Plan and Community Plans, along with other work programs that are in progress along Los Angeles’s major transit lines.
The TNPs not only establish new regulations to support transit ridership through the advancement of tailored, pedestrian-oriented building design standards and other streetscape improvements, but in the case of the Exposition Corridor TNP, it has also increased housing capacity within its boundaries by 4,400 to 6,000 units. While zoning in most of the low-density single-family neighborhoods remained the same in the Exposition Corridor TNP area, the adopted plan increased the zoning in two single-family areas. These areas, previously zoned for single-family use, were upgraded to allow for medium-density, multi-family, and mixed-use zoning.
The areas designated for commercial use under the adopted plan were additionally expanded to accommodate as many as 14,300 new jobs—generating greater economic opportunities on the Westside, which is home to emerging industrial sectors and clusters of creative, clean industry -- including high-tech jobs. These targeted zone changes are helping to create opportunities for new housing, while also fostering new commercial connections in proximity to high-quality transportation.
Planners for this and other TNPs have been working with stakeholders to shape the design and development that best meets the needs of neighborhood residents and community members. The public comments gathered during these processes all get reflected in the various plans’ key provisions, including in their design standards, building intensities, and public benefits systems.
To learn more about planning transit oriented developments in your community, please visit planning.lacity.org/plans-policies/initiatives-policies/transit-neighborhood-plans.