Los Angeles city planners are taking the first step toward freshening up dozens of outdated community development plans throughout the city in the next six years, and they are starting in the San Fernando Valley.
These community plans can dictate whether apartments, single family homes or a mix of the two can be built in a particular neighborhood. The plans also are meant to reflect neighborhood character and vision that each respective community wants to see in their area.
The Los Angeles Planning Department has picked three community plans that affect the southwest portion of the Valley, and hope to have the updates to those plans adopted by 2020.
The “Canoga Park-Winnetka-Woodland Hills-West Hills,” “Encino-Tarzana” and “Reseda-West Van Nuys” plans are the three blueprints that are up first to be revised. These plans have not been updated since the late 1990s.
The neighborhood blueprints are being updated as a recently approved plan for the Warner Center area is expected to bring more density to parts of the southwest Valley, which has been known more for low-density, single-family homes. Other factors that may come into play during the update include plans to build up the public transit corridors in the area, such as the Orange Line.
Residents and other members of the public in the southwest Valley will have opportunities this week to begin learning about the city’s accelerated process for updating all 35 of the blueprints throughout the city.
On Wednesday evening, the Woodland Hills-Warner Center Neighborhood Council will host a presentation by the Planning Department during its regular meeting starting at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Hall, 5320 Fallbrook Ave.
A “Planning 101” event has also been scheduled for Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Rose Goldwater Community Center at Westfield Topanga, on the corner of Vanowen Street and Owensmouth Avenue. The aim of the event is to provide information on how the city’s planning process works, as residents and stakeholders get ready to give input on the update of the southwest Valley plans, city officials said.
Mayor Eric Garcetti set the six-year community plan schedule into motion as a response to Measure S, a ballot initiative that was ultimately defeated, but tapped into some residents’ complaints that the city was ignoring community plans when approving development projects. With many of the community plans collecting dust for as long as 25 years, they are often not seen by developers, community members and the city as an accurate reflection of the needs of various neighborhoods.
Los Angeles city planners began making the rounds in May at local neighborhood council groups in the southwest Valley, and have set a schedule for additional community meetings taking place this summer, starting in July. The meetings are set for:
– July 12, in Encino, at 6:30 p.m.;
– July 13, in Canoga Park, at 6 p.m.;
– July 18, in West Hills, at 6 p.m.;
– July 19, in Reseda;
– July 25, in Lake Balboa;
– July 27, in Tarzana, at 6 p.m.; and
– Aug. 1, in Woodland Hills, at 6 p.m.
The city planning department’s website for the southwest San Fernando Valley plan update process can be found here.
