AIALA ADVOCACY REPORT
October 8, 2021
From the desk of Will Wright, Hon. AIA|LA
Director of Government & Public Affairs
AIALA’s Recommendations to LADWP
AIALA recently submitted an eight-page letter of recommendations to LADWP on needed best-practices to optimize safety, environmental performance, constructability, efficiency and access to affordable housing. These recommendations are the outcome of more than 12 months of outreach to architects, engineers, community stakeholders, and housing providers. Upon implementation, they will provide greater clarity and certainty to the design and development process, optimize land-use, beautify neighborhoods with healthier tree canopies, enhance walkability, save LADWP time, money, and resources, and through these actions, most importantly assist in addressing our housing affordability crisis.
RECOMMENDATIONS
I. REFORM ON-SITE STAGING AREA STANDARDS FOR TRANSFORMERS
II. IMPROVE SERVICE PLANNING DESIGN PROCEDURES
III. ADDRESS OVERHEAD POWER LINES EARLIER
IV. REFORM BREAK EVEN DETERMINATION AND VOLTAGE CLASSIFICATION
V. ENCOURAGE ADAPTIVE REUSE
VI. IMPROVE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES
To read the comprehensive set of recommendations, please click here.
LADBS Fast-Track Program
LADBS will soon launch the Fast-Track for Tenant Improvements Program. This innovative initiative, administered by LADBS via their E-Plan portal, will fast-track the permitting and approval process for tenant improvement projects. This program has been developed in collaboration with the leadership of the Los Angeles Chapter of The American Institute of Architects (AIA LA), The Building Owners and Managers Association Greater of Los Angeles (BOMA/GLA), and the Central City Association (CCA).
The goals of the program are to:
- Maintain high quality of enforcement of the California building code.
- Deploy human capital from the city’s building department where it is needed most.
- Expedite plan check approval for office tenant improvements in existing office buildings.
- Stimulate economic growth in the Los Angeles region.
- Prepare for the next regional crisis or pandemic.
- Match regulations with real risk.
- Promote the brand of Los Angeles as an innovative place for entrepreneurs to incubate business ideas, grow companies and to create jobs.
WHY:
- Allows the City of Los Angeles and LADBS to more quickly respond to the crisis caused by the pandemic.
- The pandemic exposed and accelerated a City of Los Angeles problem of securing building permits for simple tenant improvements of the interior of office fit out projects.
- City structures staffing to meet the requirements during fluctuating demands.
- Building and fire departments must bring back retired experienced people on a contract basis to deal with the increase of demand for their services during these times.
- This program is not meant to diminish the role of the city in the approval process or diminish any fire/life safety standards.
- This program is an attempt to support the city, the building, fire, planning departments and the disabled access division by relieving them of the burden of reviewing and checking low risk projects such as office tenant improvements.
- Regulation should fit the risk these types of projects create.
- The Fast-Tract Tenant Improvement Program will be limited to projects that do not affect the existing occupancy, existing changes of use or existing changes to major ingress/egress routes.
HOW:
- Anyone wanting to participate in the Fast-Tract Tenant Improvement Program must register with the building department official, demonstrate a level of competence in their field and prove good character.
- Licensed design professionals in good standing such as architects, engineers, certified interior designers, and licensed general contractors may participate.
- Plans and specifications will be prepared in accordance with all current California and Los Angeles City Building Department and fire codes including exiting requirements, energy requirements and the requirements described in the California Disabled Access codes.
- All plans and specifications will be prepared by a registered participant in this program and pay all the city fees, plan check and permit fees so there is no diminished revenue to the city.
- These projects will not affect changes of use, occupancy or major exits such as existing stairwells.
- These projects are to be limited in scope to basic tenant improvements of office fit outs of space only.
- If there is a change to use, occupancy or exiting, those plans and specifications will go through the existing plan check process that is in place.
WHAT:
- Building permit application must be provided to the city before expedited plan check is to be granted.
- Participants of the program must pay all applicable fees.
- Risk is carried by the design professionals, the building owner’s specialty consultants/contractors and the general contractor to perform the work in accordance with all codes as outlined above.
DTLA 2040 & The New Zoning Code
On September 23rd, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission voted to approve the DTLA 2040 Community Plan with amendments and the proposed plan will next be scheduled at City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
AIA LA submitted a letter expressing our concerns and recommendations with the presently drafted plan. We also shared feedback regarding the new zoning code, which will be applied on a rolling-basis as each new community plan is updated.
Our primary concern is that the new zoning code is quite complex and will require substantial professional development for more architects, plan-checkers, and zoning administrators to better understand how to interpret and implement the new code. City Council will need to support LACP and LADBS with the financial resources to administer those professional development programs. We also agree that the section of city personnel that administer and review plans for zoning compliance need to be departmentally re-structured. Currently, they’re embedded within LADBS. However, LADBS’ expertise is with the ever-evolving building code. Therefore, the city personnel reviewing zoning compliance need to be more closely aligned with the city planners that are writing the zoning code so that intent and variation can be better understood.
As both DTLA 2040 and the new zoning code further advance we encourage more architects and designers to review the proposed changes and share your input and feedback both with City Council and with the AIALA Government Outreach Committee.
Contact will@aialosangeles.org to get more involved.
The 2021-2029 Housing Element
The proposed new Housing Element for the City of Los Angeles will be heard by the City Planning Commission (CPC) on October 14th, 2021.
Click Here for the staff report and draft plans.
After an extensive analysis, LACP and HCID-LA determined that City of Los Angeles currently has the potential, realistic capacity to add 230,964 units of housing. Therefore, to meet our housing goals, the RHNA Rezoning program will need to accommodate the zoning capacity for an additional 255,415 units of housing by October 20, 2024
LACP’s Rezoning strategies will include:
- Focus on higher opportunity areas
- Maximize affordability and value capture
- Protect communities vulnerable to displacement
- Exclude high fire zones
During the LACP public hearing, I encouraged the city to more strategically analyze public land and facilities, as well as, take into consideration the vast amount of land that is currently consumed by an excessive amount of roadways. City of LA has over 6,614 miles of streets. Do we need every single mile? During the RHNA rezoning process, let’s encourage LACP to prioritize a strategic analysis and creates an inventory of opportunity streets (with a target goal of 1000 acres land) that can converted to land for housing, and/or to land dedicated to the manufacturing of housing (which will be an equal priority if we truly want to address our housing crisis).
Recent examples: When LACMA vacated one block of Ogden to build the outdoor courtyard connecting the old campus to the Resnick Pavilion, and a housing development that now sits on land that was formerly a street that connected Broadway to Main Street just south of Olympic in DTLA.
If you’d like to share feedback on the proposed Housing Element update, then please make plans to attend next week’s CPC hearing.
City Planning Commission – Virtual Meeting
Thursday October 14, 2021 (8:30am)
Use this link to join Zoom meeting at the designated time:
https://planning-lacity-org.zoom.us/j/85984699942
Meeting ID: 849 6500 5926
Password: 377316
To access the City Planning Commission Agenda, please click here.
Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission
If you currently either live and/or work in either LA Council District #2 or #4, please be aware that the Redistricting Commission is receiving community input on newly proposed district boundaries. The commission has narrowed it down to Map K2.5, which will drastically re-define both districts #2 and #4 in manner that I personally find totally irresponsible and out of touch with the current constituencies of those neighborhoods.
To make such drastic changes will totally unbalance and disorient the entire definition of Los Angeles neighborhoods. At this moment in time, when we need all of our legislative priorities focused on our housing and climate crisis, it will be irresponsible for the Redistricting Commission to adopt map K2.5.
Public Hearings to Share Comments:
October 9 (10am – 2pm)
October 13 (6pm – 10pm)
October 16th (10am – 2pm)
To attend or participate: Click Here or go to http://bit.ly/LACCRCZoom
To listen only: Call 1-669-254-5252, enter 161 545 4787#
To submit written comments: please click here.
The agenda can be found here for you reference.
The AIA LA & LACP Professional Volunteer Program (PVP)
We still have 8 upcoming opportunities for architects & designers to participate in the AIA LA Professional Volunteer Program (PVP), which is a collaborative design review program organized by AIA LA & Los Angeles City Planning (LACP)’s Urban Design Studio.
The virtual design review sessions serve as opportunities for architects and designers to help the Los Angles City Planning’s Urban Design Studio critically review upcoming projects throughout the City.
October 12, 19 (10am – 12pm)
November 2, 9, 16 (10am – 12pm)
December 7, 14, 21 (10am – 12pm)
AIA California Climate Action Webinar Series
Accelerating the Path to Zero with Prefabrication
Tuesday, October 12 at 9:00am PT
REGISTER HERE
A New Generation of Tilt-Up Buildings
Tuesday, October 12 at 12:00pm PT
REGISTER HERE
California Material Selection: Embodied Carbon + WLCA | Climate Action Webinar Series
Wednesday, October 13 at 12:00pm PT
REGISTER HERE
Don’t Leave Money on the Table – The Mechanics of Cashless Payments and How to Increase Your Collections
Wednesday, October 13 at 3:00pm PT
REGISTER HERE
Enhancing Resiliency – The Role of Reinforced Hollow Clay Masonry
Thursday, October 14 at 9:00am PT
REGISTER HERE
Designing for Prefabrication
Thursday, October 14 at 12:00pm PT
REGISTER HERE
7th Annual AIA Film Challenge Awards Ceremony
Join us at 6:30 PM EST on October 21 to celebrate the AIA Film Challenge 2021 winning films, which will be announced live! We’ll also be recognizing our wonderful finalists, watching powerful films, hearing from AIA leadership, and more.
Building a better world: How architects help their communities pre- and post-disaster
Following the release of the 4th edition of the AIA Disaster Assistance Handbook, this free course provides an overview of the four phases of disaster management. It also explains how architects assist local efforts in responding to, recovering from, preparing for, and mitigating disaster events in their communities.
Disaster assistance: How architects can help
Three expert contributors to AIA’s Disaster Assistance Handbook, which just released its fourth edition, share their experiences and advice for architects wanting to lend a hand before and after a disaster.
