UPDATE: City Planning Communication Action 01/09/2024
Greetings,
As many of you have been following the amendment to the Ventura-Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan, you’ve undoubtedly noted the evolution of the amendment itself. In February 2020, City Planning hosted an Open House describing the scope of the amendment, one of the last in-person events held by the Department that year.
In August of 2021, the rezoning of parcels within the plan area was delegated to the Southwest Valley and Southeast Valley Community Plan Update teams.
In the fall of 2021, City Planning hosted Information and Listening sessions and followed up with a survey regarding transportation improvements in the early winter of 2022 (survey results can be found here). Later, from the fall of 2022 through the early winter of 2023, the Department of Transportation conducted a second phase of the survey to gather input from transit riders.
The reason for this email is to notify subscribers that on March 3, 2023, the City Council passed a motion to expedite a portion of the amendment work program.
The first part of the motion addresses the streamlining of sign approvals.The current process for sign review requires a case to be filed, which can delay the permit process by weeks or months and is cumbersome and expensive for small businesses. In the wake of the pandemic lockdown, with some businesses beginning to recover and others starting up, creating an administrative review process for business signs is intended to aid local employers by offering a faster turnaround time for review at a reduced fee.
The motion then directs the Department “to update and modify the language of the Specific Plan to reflect recently adopted ordinances” such as the Processes and Procedures Ordinance. This ordinance, passed by Council this January and taking effect in July of this year, moves the approval procedures for case filings within a Specific Plan area from Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) Section 11.5.7 to the newly created LAMC Chapter 1A.
Lastly, the motion addresses the issue of appointment of Plan Review Board (PRB) members. Specifically, the motion directs City Planning to “allocate PRB appointments to achieve equitable representation based on communities rather than Council District.” Redistricting in 2021 reduced the number of councilmembers in the plan area from four to two, which in turn reduced the number of seats on the PRB, since board members are appointed by the Council Offices that oversee the plan area, not by community. This motion seeks to ensure appropriate community representation on the board. The previous Council District map is here while the current Council district map is here.
The Valley Overlay Amendment Unit is currently working on this phase of the amendment.
At a special meeting of the PRB on April 20, 2023, at 2:30 pm, staff will start reviewing the proposed changes with respect to signage review, updates with Processes and Procedures/recent ordinances, and language clean-up with the Board. Members of the public can attend in person at 6262 Van Nuys Boulevard, Room 3B, or online via Zoom at the link below.
Follow the case online at this dedicated page, and visit the team’s webpage to stay connected as this portion of the amendment advances quickly.
