Open Space , The Pressure Is On from CAP Views Newsletter

Have you ever noticed how much open space there is in Council District 2? Did you ever wonder why there are so many large lots in La Tuna Canyon, Shadow Hills, parts of Sunland/Tujunga, and Lake View Terrace? It has to do with zoning and the Community Plan.

The Sunland/Tujunga, Shadow Hills, Lake View Terrace, East La Tuna Canyon Community Plan determines land use in the area by zoning ordinances. It’s what tells people where commercial areas are, where apartments are allowed, where industrial sites can be built, and where horses can be kept. Zoning and the Community Plan (plus Specific Plans and other land use ordinances/laws) are why you don’t see stores in Seven Hills, why there’s no factories on Osborne, and why liquor stores can’t be placed near schools. Brentwood’s or Encino’s Community Plan calls for large home lots, and commercial areas near major roads. Ours works the same way.

Our Community Plan also says specifically that “development located between the Sunland-Tujunga- Lake View Terrace-Shadow Hills-La Tuna Canyon Community Plan boundary line on the south, the DWP right-of-way on the northeast, and Sunland Boulevard on the northwest having a natural average grade of 2:1 or steeper shall be limited to Minimum Density.” - Community Plan, Footnotes, Page F-2, Footnote 15.

This is exactly where Whitebird plans on building the Canyon Hills development. It’s also why the area has not been built out before now.

All of this is to point out that our community is the way it is BY DESIGN. The City is required to establish community plans for every part of Los Angeles. They are guided by extensive land use studies and focus groups with residents and stakeholders. Community Plans are designed to be flexible, and to be revised every once in a while to reflect new realities. Our Community Plan is scheduled for review again in 2010.

Unfortunately for the residents of Council District 2, it looks like our Community Plan will be altered a lot earlier and without our conscious participation. It will be changed by the Planning Department to accommodate developers and land speculators seeking Plan amendments and zone changes to build more houses.

Why will these Community Plan amendments be decided by the Planning Department? Because the City of LA has been told to accommodate its share of the 6 million new residents expected to move to California during the next decade. The Planning Department is taking the lead because land use decisions are always contentious, and our City leaders do not want to face the voting public to tell them their communities will be changed forever with higher housing density and using up every available bit of open space. It’s also easier to grant amendments at sparsely attended Planning Commission meetings than to go through the public - and time consuming - process.

Dale Thrush, CD2 Chief Planning Deputy, has recently been talking at meetings around town about how the City is staffed by “pragmatists”, and we should all expect to see compromises. The zoning and land use laws are not set in stone, and the Hillside Density Ordinance can be interpreted in many ways. One can and should argue with the idea that growth is inevitable and should be accommodated, but if things are to change wouldn’t it be better to have local policies decided by our public officials in an open public process, not by the motivations of developers and land speculators who won’t have to live with the consequences?

If the Community Plan is to be amended beyond recognition by developers, we should all worry.