Los Angeles City Planning is pleased to announce that a report regarding the Department’s ordinance implementation plan and a processes comparison chart have been prepared and submitted to the City Council in advance of the final Processes and Procedures Ordinance forthcoming from the City Attorney. Both items are available through the Council File Management System in Council File 12-0460-S4.

The proposed ordinance is the initial part of a larger effort to comprehensively revise the City‘s Zoning Code to make it more responsive and accessible to the public. The ordinance streamlines and reorganizes the rules that govern the steps involved in reviewing projects and adopting land use policy, while introducing a more user-friendly format. 

The City Council previously considered the ordinance at their meeting on June 23, 2021, during which they instructed City Planning to report back with a public outreach and implementation plan and a line-by-line chart of the proposed changes. In response, City Planning has prepared a report and a processes comparison chart that displays the correspondence between existing processes and the proposed processes, as well as any changes in decision makers, public hearing notification requirements, and appellate procedures.

Some of the highlights of the proposed Processes & Procedures Ordinance are:

• Reduce the nearly 120 different processes to about 60 while still maintaining the full variety of public engagement opportunities, so you don’t have to be a Zoning Code expert to know the rules
• Standardize a 24-day advance notice of public hearing requirement, where the current advance notice can range from 10 to 24 days
• Establish a consistent 15-day filing period for all project-related appeals, where the current filing period can range from 10 to 15 days
• Require mail notification of public hearings to Certified Neighborhood Councils for projects within their respective geographies
• Create a standardized entitlement path for considering a limited modification request on a previously approved project, which is intended to balance the need of applicants with the need for transparency and public participation
• Clarify the agency responsible for review and the applicable time frame once a determination is made, so you know when your entitlements expire, with a time extension for 100% affordable housing projects

City Planning will continue to notify interested parties as the remaining legislative process milestones are reached, including final ordinance transmittal by the City Attorney. To receive future updates on this proposed ordinance, please sign up to join the interested parties list: planning.lacity.org/about/email-sign-up

Thank you for your continued engagement with Los Angeles City Planning.

Staff Report and Comparison Report: