City Planning

"I'm lonely," a man half-jokingly testified at the LADOT's Public Hearing in support of the First Year Bike Lanes last Thursday night. "My friends find [riding in the street] terrifying."

When I think "Valentine's Day," I think "bike lanes."

Tonight, the city's Community Development Department (CDD), will hold a community meeting in South L.A. (details below) to present the 2013-2017 Draft Consolidated Plan and solicit feedback from residents about the Mayor's proposals for how to spend millions in federal funds to assist very-low, low-, and moderate-income communities around the city.

When Governor Jerry Brown signed A.B. 2245 into law, a law allowing certain bicycle projects to opt-out of the CEQA process, the news was somewhat buried. On the same day, the Governor vetoed the "Give Me 3" safety legislation that created a legal buffer between cyclists and passing automobiles earning the scorn of cyclists everywhere.

At the end of 2012, LA/2B, the project to revamp the Mobility Element of the General Plan for L.A, announced they had narrowed down the feedback gathered during more than a year's worth of public engagement to six draft goals and their corresponding policies.

Just before the Christmas holiday, the Department of City Planning released the Preliminary Drafts of the New Community Plans for South and Southeast Los Angeles. The plans, along with those for the West Adams-Baldwin Hills-Leimert Park area, together comprise the approximately 45-square mile South L.A. Planning Region. It is an area that Principal City Planner Faisal Roble acknowledged to Curbed in May 2012 had long been neglected with regard to planning (with the Crenshaw Corridor being the key exception).

“Are they going to actually listen to what I have to say?" a South L.A. community leader asked when I talked to him about getting involved with the LA/2B project (the effort to integrate Complete Streets principles and community input into the Mobility Element of the City's General Plan).

Bicycle advocacy in the city entered a new phase last week, when the Department of City Planning released a five page Notice of Preparation (NOP) for an environmental review of forty three miles of bike lanes. These projects represent some of the more controversial bicycling projects as they often times require removing curbside parking, mixed-use travel lanes, and/or turning lanes.  The public process, which begins with scoping meetings next week, could prove to be contentious as this is the first time the City of Los Angeles has publicly proposed a city-wide program of creating bicycle facilities at the cost of mixed-use facilities or automobile parking.

Wilshire Boulevard.