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PLANNING WATCH - California state law plus the City’s Charter require Los Angeles to maintain an up-to-date General Plan. The City Council must adopt it, divide it into required and optional chapters (i.e., elements), and keep it current. Unfortunately, LA’s General Plan is mostly out-of-date. LA’s elected officials don’t fret about this, however, since they are so focused on real estate deals. We can be dismayed, but not surprised by their behavior.
This is why we need to review the General Plan’s legal requirements. If you are concerned about the future of Los Angeles, this is something you need to know, even if the City’s fathers and mothers could care less.
State’s General Plan requirements: All California counties and cities must have a General Plan, which must be comprehensive and current. The State of California’s General Plan Guidelines require these General Plans to include nine chapters (elements): (1) Land Use, (2) Circulation, (3) Housing, (4) Conservation, (5) Open Space, (6) Noise, (7) Safety, (8) Environmental Justice, and (9) Air Quality. California cities and counties, however, can consolidate or add elements.
City of LA General Plan requirements: City Charter, Section 554: General Plan – Purposes and Contents:
“Purposes. The General Plan shall serve as a guide for:
- The physical development of the City;
- The development, correlation, and coordination of official regulations, controls, programs and services; and
- The coordination of planning and administration by all agencies of the City government, other governmental bodies, and private organizations and individuals involved in the development of the City.
Content. The General Plan shall include those elements required by state law and any other elements added by the Council, by resolution, after considering the recommendation of the City Planning Commission.”
Adoption dates of LA’s General Plan elements. (The planning profession’s standard is to update citywide elements every ten years, community plans every five years.)
- General Plan Framework, adopted 1995 and re-adopted 2001.
- Land Use, 15 Community Plans in the San Fernando Valley and West LA are slowly being updated. The remaining 19 Community Plans have no posted update schedule.
- Conservation, adopted 2001.
- Noise, adopted 1999.
- Circulation/Mobility, adopted 2016.
- Open Space, adopted 1973.
- Safety, adopted 1986.
- Air Quality, adopted 1989.
- Infrastructure Systems, 1972.
- Public Facilities, 1969.
- Environmental Justice, preliminary work recently began.
The adoption dates of LA’s General Plan’s elements reveal that most are out-of-date. The exceptions are the Circulation/Mobility element, which is “only” nine years old, plus several Community Plans, such as Hollywood, which the City Council recently adopted.
Does it make a difference that nearly all of LA’s General Plan elements are out-of-date? Yes, and here are two of many reasons:
First, Los Angeles is running chronic budget deficits, and unlike the Federal government, cannot issue bonds to cover them. The reasons are not hard to find. The Los Angeles Police Department gets about $3.6 billion per year, which makes it the most costly City department, with a budget increase of $103.7 million for this fiscal year. Most other City departments received cutbacks, with staff reduced by 600 positions.
Second, the costs of ignoring LA’s General Plan. Except for policing, we live in an era of shrinking government, which is why LA needs to carefully plan for what remains. This is why current General Plan elements are essential, even the Infrastructure and Public Facilities elements, which the City Council adopted over 50 years ago and then lost track of.
Nevertheless, Section 544 of the LA City Charter is clear on the role of the General Plan:
“The General Plan shall guide:
- The development, correlation and coordination of official regulations, controls, programs and services; and
- The coordination of planning and administration by all agencies of the City government, other governmental bodies and private organizations and individuals involved in the development of the City.”
Even though LA’s General Plan is essential to the city’s laws, programs, and services, the City’s annual budget results from extensive lobbying by City departments and external players, especially developers. The latter’s ever-changing business models rely on quickly changing regulations, depending on which real estate ventures become the most profitable.
Helluva way to run a city!
(Dick Platkin ([email protected]) is a retired LA city planner. He reports on local planning issues and is a board member of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles. Previous columns are available at the CityWatchLA archives.)
