On Monday, the City of Los Angeles opened a new appeals process for residents to ask for pedestrian or bicycle improvements in areas where the city has recently repaved the streets but failed to follow the city’s Mobility Plan. According to Streetsblog L.A. Editor Joe Linton’s *** personal bike news website Bikas LA, there have already been eight appeals filed, one by Linton and seven other ones.
The appeals, nearly all for missing crosswalks, come on the heels of the saga of the Stoner Park crosswalks where advocates painted crosswalks around the park, two of which were on a “Slow Street,” the city removed the crosswalks, and after bad press and intervention from the local City Councilmember re-installed the crosswalks. While it’s encouraging that in the end the crosswalks were installed, it shouldn’t be this hard.
In March of 2024, voters passed Measure HLA which required the city to implement its own mobility plan when completing repaving projects of a certain size. The popular measure received a majority of votes in all fifteen council districts while cruising to an easy victory. Since then the city dragged its feet, and nearly a year and a half after the measure was passed the city’s implementation ordinance went into effect on Monday. So did the ability of residents to appeal out-of-court if they believe the city is failing to implement the law.
On Monday afternoon, LADOT added a new HLA appeals form on their dashboard. This form went live after a half dozen HLA appeals had already been submitted.
Linton’s blog is tracking appeals when people send him a notice that they are appealing, and he is posting copies of appeals letters people have submitted to the City Board of Public Works. There may well be more appeals happening that the city hasn't made public yet.
LAist published an article outlining how to make official appeals through the city’s website, but there are a few problems with official LADOT Mobility Plan dashboard.
- It's too complicated. In LAist’s words, “Dashboards, buttons and appeals — there are a lot of parts to this, so stick with us.” Basically, both the LADOT website and the new appeal process are pretty opaque, even if you’re halfway web savvy.
- The LADOT dashboard currently omits the main type of project that triggers HLA: street resurfacing. The city has completed 700+ “Pavement Preservation Program” street resurfacing projects since HLA took effect. As of now, there are two PPP projects (Reseda and a resurfaced part of Riverside Dr. that already had bike lanes) listed on the LADOT dashboard. For its dashboard LADOT mainly lists 30+ city projects that LADOT asserts are not covered by HLA.
For anyone seeking to appeal that the city didn't follow Measure HLA - for projects listed on the dashboard or not listed on the dashboard - you can use LADOT's online form or you can email appeals to the Board of Public Works at BPW-RAM@lacity.org. (Linton shared his suggested sample HLA appeal letter last month).
Whether it be filling out complicated forms online, documenting the city’s mis-steps and emailing them directly, or taking to the streets with paint and rollers; the city’s residents are crying out for better and safer pedestrian infrastructure. Measure HLA was designed to ensure that the city regularly added crosswalks, bike lanes, and bus lanes when they are cheapest - during street resurfacing.
The question that remains is whether or not the government is actually listening.
*** Disclaimer: Streetsblog LA Editor Joe Linton is the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles concerning the lack of implementation of HLA on Vermont Avenue. Streetsblog L.A. and the California Streets Initiative, the non-profit publisher of Streetsblog in California, are not party to this lawsuit. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, the bulk of our HLA coverage will be done by Sahra Sulaiman or Damien Newton.
