LOS ANGELES CITY PLANNING – IMPORTANT UPDATES

We’re excited to announce that there have been several key updates from the Los Angeles City Planning (LACP) department, including recent changes to Executive Order #1 (ED#1), the upcoming Draft Landscape and Site Design Ordinance, and the Housing Element Rezoning Program.

Executive Order #1 (ED#1):

As of March 21, 2024, LACP released updated implementation guidelines for ED#1.

• Key changes include:
  • A new ED 1 Property Owner Declaration to be provided to LAHD as a requirement of project review
  • Technical clarification on eligibility and City Planning application filing standards to qualify for the ED1 Ministerial Approval Process
  • Technical updates to LAHD Replacement Unit Determination procedures, reflecting new State law in effect as of January 1, 2024.

Draft Landscape and Site Design Ordinance:

Back in mid-2020 during the height of the pandemic, AIA Los Angeles and the LACP Urban Design Studio hosted a series of roundtable discussions about Healthy Building Design and explored ideas for what changes to the zoning code, building code, and the city’s design guidelines would help facilitate the design of a healthier, more human-centric built environment.

The premise of those roundtables focused on the idea that we have a responsibility to pay greater attention to the details of design that matter and affect the way people live. The overlapping crises of systemic racism, environmental injustice, a global pandemic, and climate change demonstrated that steps must be taken to create healthy communities at all levels of City Planning, from the General Plan to Community Plans to the Zoning Code, and at the granular level of project review with the thoughtful design of living places.

In response to those conversations and for the past three years, the Urban Design Studio has been working on an update to the Landscape and Site Design Ordinance.

LACP explains that “the Ordinance replaces the existing, outdated Landscape Ordinance and Design Guidelines, advances site design principles that make our streets and sidewalks more walkable, support healthy communities, provide spaces for nature and biodiversity to flourish, and create buildings and places that support positive community interaction.”

According to LACP, “The Draft Landscape and Site Design Ordinance has been informed by extensive community engagement over the last two years, including feedback from public health officials, architects and landscape architects, community organizations, and partner agencies.”

• Aims to replace outdated landscape guidelines and promote walkable communities, healthy spaces, and biodiversity.
• Informed by extensive community engagement over the past two years.
• Please CLICK HERE to read the draft ordinance.

• To Learn More, Attend the Open House/Webinar: April 16, 2024 (6pm) – REGISTER HERE for zoom link.
• Or schedule a 30-munite Office Hours meeting directly with LACP’s Urban Design Studio by CLICKING HERE.

Housing Element Rezoning Program:

As part of the Housing Element Rezoning Program, Los Angeles City Planning has released four new draft ordinances intending to provide greater access to housing. Central to this mission is the CHIP Ordinance, which aims to “maximize affordability, focus on geographies near transit and opportunity areas, increase the production of affordable housing, and minimize displacement.” According to LACP’s website, “Incentives will not modify the underlying zoning of a property, but will instead offer density, floor area, height, parking, and other incentives in exchange for providing on-site affordable housing units.”

• To review the four new draft ordinances:
  • Citywide Housing Incentive Program (CHIP) Ordinance
  • Housing Element Sites Ordinance
  • Resident Protections Ordinance
  • Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance
• Please review the updated guidelines and share your feedback with me at will@aialosangeles.org.  We’d like to help provide real-time feedback on whether or not these guidelines are helping (or hurting) our collective ability to respond to our region’s ongoing housing affordability conference.
• Housing Element Rezoning Program Webinar: April 9, 2024 (12pm) – REGISTER HERE for zoom link.

• Los Angeles City Planning Department Website:
  • ED#1 Implementation Guidelines
  • Draft Landscape and Site Design Ordinance:
  • Housing Element Rezoning Program:

GREAT NEWS FOR SAN DIEGO!

According to a post from AIA California’s consultant Mike Malinowski, FAIA “San Diego has embraced a wide range of permit streamlining approaches including:

Professional Certification for Tenant Improvement projects up to 10,000 sq ft

No Plan building permits for simple residential projects

Mandated very short timelines for review of affordable housing and shelters; with turnarounds in as little as a few days

Mayor’s Executive Order 2023-1

San Diego Can Now Boast a 21st Century Building Permit Process with 50% Issued Same Day

From Malinowski’s assessment, “This wide range of programs closely mirrors the process improvements highlighted in an AIA National program from a few years ago that I authored based on research and development I’ve undertaken via the non-profit Streamline Institute.”

Permit streamlining: A resource for AIA components