Los Angeles' Community Plans are supposed to be updated on a regulate basis. But even after all the community outreach and hard work by stakeholders, city staff, elected officials and others, why do we keep finding ourselves stuck at “NO?”
The Hollywood Community Plan Update is just the latest debacle. Despite years of work and extensive community engagement, it was challenged by community groups, thrown out by a judge, and had to be repealed by City Council in compliance with a court order – undoing nearly a decade's work and forcing the City to revert to the 1988 plan.
How can we plan for growth pressures in a vital urban area like Hollywood if the process is intractable? What about the many other Plans in need of urgent updating throughout the city? What are the problems – financial, bureaucratic, political, social, legal – or a toxic stew of all these – that block progress? Can we imagine a way forward?
Please join the Westside Urban Forum on Friday May 16th as our panel explores this complex topic, with a conversation including:
Moderator
Michael Woo, Dean of the College of Environmental Design, Cal Poly Pomona
Panelists
Tom Donovan, West Los Angeles Area Planning Commissioner and Attorney
Dale Goldsmith, Partner, Armbruster, Goldsmith & Delvac
Jane Usher, former Senior Assistant City Attorney and Planning Commission President. She is a board member of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council.
Dale Goldsmith, Partner, Armbruster, Goldsmith & Delvac
Jane Usher, former Senior Assistant City Attorney and Planning Commission President. She is a board member of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council.
