Generational Projections of the California Population By Nativity and Year of Immigrant Arrival

California Demographic Futures - Third In a Series of Projections

Generational Projections of the California Population By Nativity and Year of Immigrant Arrival

Pop Dynamics Research Group

John Pitkin & Dowell Myers

Copies of all project reports are downloadable from the website of the Population Dynamics Research Group, Sol Price School of Public Policy

http://www.usc.edu/schools/price/research/popdynamics

Questions on technical details should be directed to Research Director, popdynam@usc.edu

OP ED The Next Mayor of Los Angeles 050112.docx Download this file

JOB OPPORTUNITY: LA County Public Health Dept - PLACE Program is hiring

Dear Colleague,

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health PLACE Program is looking for enthusiastic, hard working policy analysts to promote healthy eating/active living policy change and implementation. Applicants should be passionate about partnering with cities and communities to develop policies that create healthy communities.  See blurb below and job announcement attached.  Applicants should send a resume and cover letter to rmckenzie@ph.lacounty.gov  Please forward to your networks.  Thank you! 

 

+++++++++

Choose Health LA (CHLA) is funded by the Centers for Disease and Prevention (CDC) through a contract with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) and Maxim Staffing.  The goal of CHLA is to prevent chronic disease and reduce health disparities in the county’s population through interventions that create healthy and safe environments and improve access to evidence-based clinical preventive services.  Three Policy Analysts will be assigned to the PLACE Program (Policies for Livable Active Communities and Environments) within DPH.  These positions will manage healthy eating/active living (HEAL) initiatives under Choose Health LA, aimed at reducing obesity through the development and implementation of strategies that promote physical activity and healthy eating. The Policy Analysts will serve as technical experts, management consultants, and liaisons to community and city partners working toward policy passage and implementation.

PLACE Policy Analyst Job Announcement - April 2012.pdf Download this file

Los Angeles’ Expo Line: A Cautionary Tale For Building Rail

New post on Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy Los Angeles’ Expo Line: A Cautionary Tale For Building Rail by Ethan Elkind Expo Phase 1 (in blue) opens this weekend. Phase 2? Who knows. This weekend, the long awaited Expo Light Rail Line will finally open in Los Angeles, connecting the traffic-choked Westside with the rest of the city's rail network, more than two decades after the region's first modern rail line opened.  The relatively short light rail line (8.6 miles, 12 stations) took an absurdly long amount of time to build.  To put it in human terms, my wife and I attended the groundbreaking ceremony when she was three months pregnant with our first child.  That same child just celebrated his fifth birthday last week.  All this for a construction process that utilized an existing right-of-way and required no new tunneling. Why did construction take so long? Two answers: lack of government coordination and citizen lawsuits (a third answer of poor construction oversight could arguably apply to most large public works projects these days). The lack of government coordination hindered the construction authority building Expo, which had to work with the local utility on relocating power lines, the California Department of Transportation on a rail bridge over the freeway, and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on all intersection crossings. For a variety of reasons, this process didn't always go smoothly, resulting in project delays and additional expenses. <a href="http://legalplanet.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/los-angeles-expo-line-a-cautionary-tale-for-building-rail/

Vertical Content V1.7

Vertical_Content_v1.7.pdf Download this file

RFQ/P for the Sixth Street Viaduct - DTLA

CITY OF LOS ANGELES   

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS   

BUREAU OF ENGINEERING  

REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS/PROPOSAL 

FINAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION SUPPORT SERVICES FOR THE SIXTH STREET VIADUCT REPLACEMENT PROJECT

RFQ_P-Sixth Street Viaduct Replacement.pdf Download this file

Two demographers, Dowell Myers and Joel Kotkin, on the future of California: it ain’t looking good

New post on Urban ethics and theory Two demographers, Dowell Myers and Joel Kotkin, on the future of California: it ain’t looking good by drschweitzer So some of my students have sent me this WSJ piece citing Joel Kotkin about the future of California. According to him, California's future looks terrible: due to the welfare and regulatory state. The piece is written by Allysia Finley, and here's the bit of information that should scare us a bit: Nearly four million more people have left the Golden State in the last two decades than have come from other states. This is a sharp reversal from the 1980s, when 100,000 more Americans were settling in California each year than were leaving. According to Mr. Kotkin, most of those leaving are between the ages of 5 and 14 or 34 to 45. In other words, young families. The pithy quote: "The new regime"—his name for progressive apparatchiks who run California's government—"wants to destroy the essential reason why people move to California in order to protect their own lifestyles. Kotkin's point, a bit overstated perhaps, is that Californians are making it so miserable to to try to start up a new business or buy a house that they are cutting their own legs out from under themselves--and they are doing it not because they really wish to protect the environment, but because they want to maintain the exclusivity of their neighborhoods and schools. Leaving aside Kotkin, who comes off as abrasive in this piece, it's hard to justify the regulatory and approvals process in California when you read stories like this one about Julie Pries working for two years in a recession to start up an ice cream shop in San Francisco. Ms. Pries said it took two years to open the restaurant, due largely to the city’s morass of permits, procedures and approvals required to start a small business. While waiting for permission to operate, she still had to pay rent and other costs, going deeper into debt each passing month without knowing for sure if she would ever be allowed to open. The mayor's response: a $1.5 million fund to help small businesses, which is chump change in a place where commercial rents are very high. How about just cutting approvals time in half, for starters, instead? And that's Kotkin's point, once you cut through the WSJ's "let's all hate on California" nonsense, is a sound one: California is not doing itself any favors with this stuff, given how the state's economy is not bouncing back. And Kotkin's point about the state being divided into a playground for the rich and a haven for the poor simply echoes a point made by Californian's superstar historian Kevin Starr several years ago. Like it or not, those of us with financial security in the state seem to feel little urgency to change the regulatory and approvals process to help out those who need a job at an ice cream shop. Dowell Myers, one of my brilliant colleagues, just released a major report showing that the state's growth numbers are not good. Here's the shorter news story. The analysis also estimated that growth among California’s seniors, those 65 and older, will quadruple within the next 20 years, driven by the aging of the large baby boomer generation. At the same time, growth among the main working-age population ages 25 to 64 is expected to slow, and virtually all the projected growth, or 98 percent, is comprised of native-born children of immigrants, or second-generation immigrants. “In less than 20 years, the baby boom generation will all be senior citizens, and these projections show their replacements in the workforce will be the children of immigrants,” Pitkin said. So basically, California turns into a great, big retirement village. Will those seniors stay or will they go? It's hard to tell: if it's difficult for people to start up the sort of businesses that help seniors cope with their new needs in the market, seniors just might leave for places that are more friendly to them where housing costs are lower. That means some of the concern about housing prices might alleviate. All of this, however, is bad news for the bullet train, the other object of Kotkin's scorn. The projected use for the train and justifying investment has hinged on population numbers that don't fit the state's new reality of economic stagnation. Myers is too optimistic and polite to say it, but that's essentially what his report shows. If there aren't any new opportunities, people can't be pulled to the state. All that just brings up the typical Keynesian arguments that if you spend state money on the train, the economy will grow, there will be jobs, etc etc and so what if we over-estimated the future population of the potential customer base? If you are not a Keynesian, spending billions on the train makes little sense in the light of these projections. drschweitzer | 04/25/2012 at 06:52 | Tags: population, regulation | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/px5Au-1vz Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://lisaschweitzer.com/2012/04/25/two-demographers-dowell-myers-and-joel-kotkin-on-the-future-of-california-it-aint-looking-good/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

City of LA :: Business Tax Reform

In the year 2010, Los Angeles supported only 1,650,417 jobs, even though our population was at 3,792,621.  That means 2,142,204 were not working, either because of age or lack of opportunity.  I'm sure today's #'s are very similar, as well.  If only 43% of our community is working, then only 43% of our community is supporting the financial impact of our essential services.

If we want to have a sustainable city - one that is economically competitive with other world-class destinations - then we need to find a way to better balance those numbers.  One way to create more jobs is by attracting more businesses to locate in Los Angeles, and one way to do that is to make it more desirable to live here (better urban design, better architecture)  and to make it more lucrative to operate your business here.  

If you have a chance, tomorrow morning go down to City Hall and advocate your support for phasing out the gross receipts tax, which is an essential next step for ensuring our city's competitiveness for future generations.

Yours truly,

Will Wright, Hon. AIA|LA

Director, Government & Public Affairs

AIA Los Angeles

BTAC_NewGRTEliminationReport4.18.12.pdf Download this file

clkcommitteeagend281176744_04252012.pdf Download this file

New legislative effort underway to develop public access to the L.A. River

New post on Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy New legislative effort underway to develop public access to the L.A. River by Sean Hecht Earlier this year, California State Senator Kevin De Leon introduced SB 1201, a bill that could bolster efforts to open up the Los Angeles River for lawful recreational uses such as boating.  I have a particular interest in this, since UCLA's Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic worked with the advocacy group Friends of the Los Angeles River and other advocates to develop the legislation.  UCLA Law fellow (and co-blogger) Rhead Enion and I have worked on this effort over the last couple of years, along with clinic students Philip Mehdipour and Cody Sonntag, and former clinic students Kate Leonard, Sonya Paskil, Maya Kuttan, and Margaret Lee. The bill is the latest development in a saga whose most recent chapter began with a momentous (and illegal) kayak trip down the entire length of the River, led by George Wolfe, in 2008 (chronicled by LA Creek Freak blogger Joe Linton here, here, and here).  (The trip was widely covered in the news media and was cited in the EPA's decision to designate the River as a "traditional navigable water" under the Clean Water Act.)  While George's initial trip down the River was met with hostility from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the L.A. County Department of Public Works, which manage the River and restrict public access, the political winds have changed dramatically since then.  Since then, George has founded LA River Expeditions, which last year was licensed to lead kayak trips down the River as part of a pilot program.  (This story has also been immortalized in the documentary film Rock the Boat.). It is clear, however, that the current policies that govern access to, and use of, the River are ill-suited to long-term recreational use of the River.  Accordingly, Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR) has developed a set of recommendations for access and use of the river that they believe will help to ensure public access, and ultimately to help the city and its residents to understand that the river is a real, living river. In furtherance of its recommendations, FoLAR has led an effort - spearheaded by FoLAR President Lewis MacAdams and board member Charles Eddy - to change the law in order to facilitate public access to the River.  Local media, such as LA Creek Freak and LA Curbed, have reported on the legislation.  In this interview with Lewis MacAdams and Charles Eddy of FoLAR from The Planning Report, Lewis and Charles discuss their goals and strategies at length. The bill itself proposes some important changes in the law: providing immunity to the government for liability related to use of the river (which is a big concern to the County of Los Angeles); creating a new interjurisdictional state agency called the Los Angeles River Interagency Access Council to plan and manage river access; and amending the Los Angeles County Flood Control Act to explicitly add to the management purposes of the river to provide for public use of areas "suitable for recreational and educational purposes."  It will be interesting to see where this bill goes.   Sean Hecht | April 23, 2012 at 6:09 pm | Tags: FOLAR, Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic, Friends of the Los Angeles River, George Wolfe, Kevin De Leon, L.A. River Expeditions, Lewis MacAdams, Los Angeles, Los Angeles River, navigable waters, SB 1201, UCLA Environmental Law Clinic | Categories: California, public lands, Water | URL: http://wp.me/prxko-3MJ Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://legalplanet.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/new-legislative-effort-underway-to-develop-public-access-to-the-l-a-river/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

New Summary Report on California’s Law to Streamline Environmental Review of Infill Projects

New post on Legal Planet: Environmental Law and Policy New Summary Report on California’s Law to Streamline Environmental Review of Infill Projects by Ethan Elkind As this blog has chronicled, California has undertaken some ambitious efforts to streamline environmental review for certain infill projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). One of the most recent and potentially far-reaching attempts, SB 226 (Simitian, 2011), creates an in-depth administrative process to define the standards for what constitutes a "good" infill project.  Qualifying projects can then take advantage of prior, master-level environmental review and potentially experience a faster, more certain permitting process.  The statute charges the Governor's Office of Planning and Research (OPR) with developing the infill performance standards and clarifying the key legal terms. To help OPR with SB 226 implementation, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and UCLA Law convened a group of technical experts and CEQA attorneys last month in Berkeley. The group provided OPR staff with feedback on their draft proposal.  Based on that discussion, the three law schools today release a summary report called "Defining Good Infill," which describes the technical and legal challenges associated with SB 226 implementation and the highlights from the convening discussion. You can download the report from the Berkeley, Davis, or UCLA websites.  OPR will submit the final guidelines and performance standards by the end of June to the Natural Resources Agency for certification. Ethan Elkind | April 23, 2012 at 9:15 am | Tags: CEQA, infill, SB 226 | Categories: California, Climate Change, Green Living, Land Use, Regulatory Policy | URL: http://wp.me/prxko-3Mj Comment    See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://legalplanet.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/new-summary-report-on-californias-law-to-streamline-environmental-review-of-infill-projects/ Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

Los Angeles Zoning Code Revision at PLUM 4/24 at 2 PM

Help us spread the word by forward this information to anyone you feel might be interested.

The City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning has developed a proposal to embark on one of the City’s biggest planning initiatives to date: a comprehensive revision of the City’s Zoning Code.

The proposal is currently scheduled to go before the Planning & Land Use Management Committee this Tuesday, April 24, 2012 at 2:30 PM in the John Ferraro Council Chamber, Room 340, City Hall.  We anticipate being one of the first items on the agenda, but that is, as always, subject to change.  We hope to see you there.

The current Zoning Code was first adopted in 1946, and has grown from an 84-page pamphlet to a 600+ page book does not reflect our 21st Century needs or vision.  The proposal will result in a new Zoning Code that:

• Establishes clear & predictable language
• Offers a wider variety of zoning options
• More effectively implement the Goals & Objectives of General Plan and Community Plans
• Accommodates the City’s current and future needs
• Reflects the diversity of Los Angeles and allow each neighborhood to maintain distinct sense of place
• Improves sustainability, economic vitality, & quality of life
• Is an economic development tool that will help shore up the City’s tax base

The five-year work program includes three major deliverables:

• Dynamic Web-Based Zoning Code - Clear & Predictable Code that allows for customized/interactive on-line experience
• Layperson’s Guide to Zoning - Easy-to-Read Guides that help people navigate regulations & procedures
• Unified Downtown Development Code - New Zoning Tools for revitalization of Downtown within first 24-30 months of the program; ensure it is poised to lead the charge for Los Angeles’s economic recovery

Below are links to the Department's funding request which outlines the work program and budget plan. We hope that you support these efforts and look forward to working with you all on this endeavor.

Council File No. 12-0460

http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=12-0460

PDF of Proposal

http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2012/12-0460_rpt_plan_3-27-12.pdf

Density & Transportation in Los Angeles

New post on LA/2B Density & Transportation in Los Angeles by lacityplanning The subject of density in Los Angeles has been garnering a significant amount of attention in recent weeks. The Census Bureau recently released new population figures that showed the Los Angeles area (not city) is the densest region in the United States. The figures, which showed the Los Angeles region (#1) ahead of New York (#5) in terms of density, brought a slew of media attention to the issue. The issues of density vs. sprawl, Manhattanization, and city character in Los Angeles were all the subject of speculation in light of the newest density figures. While the figures perhaps signal some sort of tipping point for LA, it's important to remember that these are regional comparisons and not comparisons of the cities. The City of New York can still boast as being the densest big city in America. In fact, it is 3 times as dense as the City of Los Angeles. But comparisons aside, one thing is clear: Los Angeles is a decidedly urban city. A city to city comparison is an interesting exercise, but for the purposes of the Mobility Element we are interested in the varying densities within the City. This map depicts the City’s population density in terms of numbers of persons per acre for each of the City's Census blocks. Click to view <a href="http://la2b.org/2012/04/17/density-transportation-in-los-angeles/

Op-Ed: How Design Drives Urban Change

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OP-ED:  The Taxi of Tomorrow Is Great, But New York Needs More Design Thinking    In today's New York Observer, Design Trust executive director Susan Chin and Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum board chair Paul Herzan champion the power of design to drive urban change. Full text is below.    The considerable buzz around the unveiling of the Taxi of Tomorrow prototype at the 2012 New York International Auto Show reflects not only the ownership that the people of New York City feel for "their car," but also demonstrates a passionate concern many New Yorkers have for the design of their city and public space.  What makes the Taxi of Tomorrow so significant for New York as its first purpose-built cab is the many improvements for passenger and driver, achieved through an unlikely partnership between the taxi community and the design community-made possible by the Design Trust for Public Space and Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum joining forces with NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission and Nissan.   The daunting halo of complexity ("it will never happen") of the Taxi of Tomorrow project demonstrates the power of design in our city to drive change.   Image courtesy Nissan.   Design Trust redefined taxis as "moveable public space." The Nissan NV200 hits the streets late 2013.    Not-for-profit design organizations recognized the need for discussion of vital public space, and the DesignTrust organized the exhibit that got the conversation started. Cooper-Hewitt leveraged its role as a national design resource by connecting the brain trust of the design community with New York City regulators to begin the collaboration and to discuss the opportunity. Design thinking is the glue that brings many stakeholders together to solve complex problems and capture the city's collective imagination. This creativity and drive to make change is fostered in an enlightened administration, like Mayor Bloomberg's, empowering its staff to innovate and charging its public servants to take ownership of projects that have long been considered intractable.   Over seven years ago, we began efforts to make taxis safer, more comfortable, efficient, accessible and environmentally sustainable. Our collaborative approach combined design studies, research, convening of stakeholders-fleet and medallion owners, drivers, planners, designers and city officials, including the Taxi and Limousine Commission, world-renowned design practitioners such as Smart Design and Pentagram, to brainstorm and develop ideas for improving and redesigning the taxi and the system.  In 2007 for the Taxi's Centennial, the Design Trust exhibited eight prototypes at the New York International Auto Show which confirmed strong global interest in the yellow cab brand that drove the TLC to design an innovative RFP process. This ultimately resulted in a long term strategic partnership between TLC and Nissan.   As our city officials identify sectors for future economic development, we believe growth in the design sector, which has increased by over 75 percent in the past decade, demonstrates its tremendous potential in contributing to New York's competitive advantage globally.  According to the Center for an Urban Future's report Growth by Design (June 2011), no other city in the country has the concentration of design jobs-architecture, fashion design, graphic design, interior design, furniture design, industrial design, more than 40,000.   Successful cities thrive on attracting smart people who have the desire to work in collaborative teams across many disciplines to improve the quality of public life, as demonstrated by a five-borough population approaching 8.3 million.  An increasingly vibrant public realm-parks, plazas, street life, cafes, waterfront access-and a higher quality of life also attract the next generation of talent to urban centers.  The city's PlaNYC, an ambitious blueprint to reduce carbon emissions by 2030, addresses energy and climate change by re-designing and re-engineering building's energy usage and polluting vehicles.   With the rapidly growing demand of consumer markets overseas, the importance of strengthening and supporting design industries to meet these exigent demands and to maintain New York's preeminence as a center of innovative design are essential. Policies that could help improve New York City designers' capacity might include: promoting New York design similar to San Francisco-SFMade-or the London Design Festival; assisting New York based designers export their services and reach new markets; encouraging partnerships between designers and businesses; developing collaborations between designers and academic institutions; and establishing innovation zones and incubators.   Other cities around the globe are now considering the Taxi of Tomorrow as their new taxi using the adage, "if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere."  While this is a celebration of the unique design New York has created, it ignores an important ingredient: what makes the Taxi of Tomorrow such a success is that it was designed for New York and New York alone.   Learn how the Design Trust jumpstarted New York City's first purpose-built taxi in The New York Times, Metropolis Magazine, or our 2012 taxi brochure.  About the Design Trust   The Design Trust for Public Space is an independent nonprofit organization that advances the quality of life in New York City by bringing visionary thinking to how cities work. Since 1995, the Design Trust has improved public space in New York City by forging critical alliances between city agencies, community groups and architecture, design, and planning experts. Learn more!

Forward this email This email was sent to will@aialosangeles.org by news@designtrust.org |   Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Design Trust for Public Space | 40 Worth Street #603 | New York | NY | 10013

The Wealth Report 2012 :: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ON PRIME PROPERTY AND WEALTH

THE WEALTH REPORT 2012

Written by Knight Frank Research

Published on behalf of Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank by Think Publishing

Editor-in-Chief: Andrew Shirley Executive Publisher: Victoria Kinnard Assistant Editor: Vicki Shiel Marketing: Rebecca Maher

Research enquiries: liam.bailey@knightfrank.com Press enquiries: rosie.cade@knightfrank.com

FOR KNIGHT FRANK

FOR CITI PRIVATE BANK

Head of Marketing, EMEA: Andrew Richmond Marketing, EMEA: Nadeem Hussain

Press enquiries: adam.castellani@citi.com

FOR THINK

Consultant Editor: Ben Walker Managing Editor: Ben Willis Creative Director: Ewan Buck Designer: Nikki Ackerman Senior Account Manager: Jackie Scully Managing Director: Polly Arnold Information Graphics: Paul Wootton Portrait Illustrations: Peter Field

wealthReport2012_lowRes.pdf Download this file

ISI Home Building Conference

Total population curves for US compared to Eurozone are quite distinct for the year 2050 (page 34).

USA = 440 million
Eurozone = 300 million

ISIHomebuildingConf.pdf Download this file

Support -- City of L.A. Comprehensive Zoning Code Update

April 5, 2012

Los Angeles City Council President Herb J. Wesson, Jr.

200 N. Spring Street, Room 430

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Re:         City of L.A. Comprehensive Zoning Code Update

Dear City Council President Wesson:

On behalf of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), an organization dedicated to promoting job growth, economic expansion and preserving the overall global competitiveness of Los Angeles County, I am writing to express the LAEDC’s support for the proposed Comprehensive Zoning Code Update, which we see as critical to ensuring that the City of Los Angeles is able to meet the land use needs of its increasingly more innovative, knowledge-based and technology-driven 21^st Century economy.

On July 14, 2010, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously (14-0) to support Los Angeles County’s first-ever, consensus-built Strategic Plan for Economic Development. This effort brought together more than 1,080 stakeholders from business, labor, environmental organizations and other community-based groups to develop a plan to ensure a strong, diverse and sustainable economy for Los Angeles County’s residents and communities.  Successfully updating the City of Los Angeles’s zoning code to reflect a 21^st Century economy advances two core aspirational goals laid out within the plan: “Create a Business Friendly Environment” and “Implement Smart Land Use Policies,” both of which are critical to advancing the long-term job growth prospects and economic vitality of the City of Los Angeles.

It goes without saying that Los Angeles’s economy is not the same as it was in 1946—the last time the City’s zoning code was dramatically revised.  As our economy continues to diversify and evolve, so must the policies and regulations that direct and shape the development necessary to support our economy not only today, but going forward.  Simply put, to have a strong, vibrant and robust economy here in the City of Los Angeles, we must also have the requisite and appropriately designated land base on which to support the businesses and industries driving the City’s economy. Overhauling our antiquated zoning code to reflect the City’s existing economic mix and diversity is a policy change that acknowledges that the status quo does not provide us with a strategic direction forward but rather serves to block our city’s progression as a global leader in emerging areas as varied as digital media, electric vehicles, information technology, and medical devices – all of which are up-and-coming, rapidly growing sectors in our city.

It is a well-known fact that developing land in the City of Los Angeles is not an easy feat.  In recent years, promising changes have been instituted to ensure that the City becomes much more business friendly in land use matters, including the creation of a Development Services Case Management Office.  We applaud the City for pursuing some of these changes.  However, the City cannot stop its efforts there; more needs to be done to ensure that we are implementing smart land use policies to support every phase of a product’s life cycle – from its design and creation to its production and exportation. In particular, smart land use policies include: providing more clarity early-on in the development process (e.g., issuing zoning confirmation letters as they do in the City of Portland); providing additional clarity that comes from by-right development and expedited permitting; and finally, of course, providing more rationality in our city’s zoning code so that it reflects our 21^st Century economy. 

Currently, the City of L.A. has only about eight percent of its total land base zoned for industrial uses; these are uses needed to support the modern, typically clean and technically advanced sectors driving the economy, not the “smokestack” industries of yester-year.  Unfortunately, about 30 percent of this industrially-zoned land has already been redeployed for population-accommodating uses.  This, in turn, has left our city with one of the lowest industrial vacancy rates in the nation—close to two percent in our industrial core —and fewer places on which to house our region’s more job-dense businesses.  This systematic effort to decommission our jobs-producing land base cannot continue if we expect to reduce our city’s excessively high (13.3 percent) unemployment rate and reverse the alarming statistic of the City of Los Angeles not adding a single net new job in over three decades—even though it has added close to one million new residents during that same time period.

As you continue your budget deliberations, we urge you to recognize the important benefits associated with dedicating resources to comprehensively update the City’s archaic and outmoded zoning code in a way that not only reflects our modern economy, but protects the employment (industrial) land needed to support the businesses driving today’s and tomorrow’s economy.  While we acknowledge that the City is facing tough budgetary decisions, it is worth remembering that efforts to welcome more businesses and the private-sector jobs these businesses create will not only help to address the City’s current and future fiscal situations, but provide it with the revenue to support the myriad of social programs that help enable and facilitate our high quality of life here in the City of Los Angeles.

Sincerely,

Bill Allen, President & CEO

Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation

Cc:          Los Angeles City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa

                Honorable Members of the Los Angeles City Council

                Michael J. LoGrande, Director of Planning

JoAnne Golden | Director of Public Policy, Strategic Initiatives
Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation
444 S. Flower Street, 37th Floor, Los Angeles CA 90071
T: 213.236.4837 C: 213.304.4323   F: 213.622.7100 | www.laedc.org |

 

 

Also: L.A. County Strategic Plan / Choose L.A. County

Letter re Comprehensive Zoning Code Revision, 4-5-2012.pdf Download this file