The Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee approved a little-known resolution and ordinance on Tuesday that questionably transfers the land use planning authority from the Community Redevelopment Agency to the city’s Department of Planning. AIDS Healthcare Foundation and its housing advocacy division, Housing Is A Human Right, opposed the action as yet another City Hall power grab that will ultimately benefit developers, but will jeopardize protections for residents.
“Angelenos have suffered enough from corrupt, backroom deals that fuel the gentrification of middle- and working-class neighborhoods,” says AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein. “L.A. politicians must stop putting developers’ profits over people.”
The Community Redevelopment Agency in Los Angeles originally created plans for how a large number of areas in the city would be developed. Those plans provided important protections for residents and neighborhoods. There are currently 19 active CRA plans and still cover a sizable portion of Los Angeles.
Representatives of AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Housing Is A Human Right told the Planning and Land Use Management Committee yesterday that the proposed transfer of land use planning authority is fundamentally flawed and breaks state rules; that the public was given minimal opportunity to review the City Council’s resolution and ordinance; and that the City Council should delay a vote on the resolution and ordinance and provide additional time for a full public review.
L.A. City Council members Marqueece Harris-Dawson, Curren Price, Bob Blumenfield, and Gil Cedillo disregarded those comments — and voted to move the resolution and ordinance to the full City Council for a vote.
“This action will take away most of the protections, mitigations, and developer responsibilities in the CRA plans that are there to protect residents and our environment,” says Housing Is A Human Right Director René Christian Moya. “But the benefits and give-aways to developers will not be touched. The resolution and ordinance is one sided and unfair, and it must not be approved.”
For more details, read the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s letter to the city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.