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We firmly believe that Los Angeles City Planning is uniquely positioned to chart a course for a more fair, equitable, and just Los Angeles for future generations. The year 2020 has been a moment of reckoning for our City. As a City, we acknowledge the role planning has played in creating and implementing discriminatory practices in both the past and present that leave Black communities vulnerable to societal disruptions.
The unfortunate legacy of planning in Los Angeles is seen today through the devaluing of Black lives, neighborhoods, and communities. Exclusionary zoning and land use practices reinforced racial segregation, poverty, environmental injustice, disinvestment, and poor health outcomes. Past land use decisions created a built environment that not only limited opportunities for advancement and achievement, but subjected Black communities to negative health outcomes due to a proliferation of noxious land uses and high pollution exposure. COVID-19 exposed these growing racial disparities as Black Angelenos are more likely to die from the virus due to several factors including higher exposure risk due to occupation, higher rates of pre-existing conditions such as asthma, and limited access to health care.
We call for the Department to take a leadership role in supporting reconciliatory and restorative actions to dismantle land use policies that have led to detrimental outcomes in Black communities. We call on the Department to foster stronger relationships with the Black community and actively listen to Los Angeles’ most vulnerable populations so that they may participate and thrive in a shared future.
To this end, the Black professionals in the Department present a few, initial requests for the current Proposed Budget (FY 2020-2021) that would critically improve how we can plan for supportive, complete communities in Los Angeles:
- Create an Office of Racial Justice and Equity within City Planning.
- Identify resources for an Office of Racial Justice and Equity to dismantle fundamentally racist policies and regulations that drive inequities, and imagine transformational policies to uplift Black communities. The office would create and implement a Racial Justice and Equity Framework to hold the Department accountable to our commitment to intentionally and authentically deepen our efforts to serve Black communities in a manner that promotes equity and inclusion. The Office would leverage partnerships with other City entities, such as the Department of Civil and Human Rights (CHRD), to implement restorative policy and plans like the Environmental Justice Element. This office would assist the Director of Planning with sufficient capacity and staff resources to address racial justice, equity, and inclusion in a manner consistent with an upcoming Mayoral Directive addressing racial equity.
- Expedite the Creation of a Full-Service South Los Angeles Field Office.
- Fully staff a South Los Angeles service center to create a presence in our underserved Black communities and include targeted educational programming to increase awareness of planning tools, resources and practices. The goal of this field office would be to build community capacity, as well as allow residents to directly consult with planning staff on zoning regulations and case processing. The office will provide the South Los Angeles region another location for public hearings, workshops, and access to community-based programming. This office would be positioned to empower residents and businesses to readily participate in economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Healing the Built Environment through Policy
- Environmental Justice Element of the General Plan.
- Identify funding to prioritize the creation of a stand-alone Environmental Justice Element of the General Plan by 2023. The Environmental Justice Element would provide a blueprint for the Department to promote greater public participation in public processes and combat geographical inequalities. This element will serve as the foundation for equitable planning for the next generation by dismantling detrimental land use patterns.
- Safety Element of the General Plan.
- Update the Safety Element of the General Plan by 2023 to employ adaptive strategies in response to the global climate crisis and to overcome vulnerabilities to more frequently occurring natural and man-made disasters, particularly within our Black communities. In coordination with relevant City departments, the element would assist in reimagining community safety by guiding the build out of infrastructure and public resources to support neighborhood-based, community care for safe and resilient Black communities.
- Housing Element of the General Plan (2021-2029).
- Housing is a human right. The current effort to update the Housing Element presents an opportunity to directly address a market that allows Black Angelenos to be four times more likely to fall into homelessness. With an anticipated goal to build over 455,000 units by 2029, the City must deliberately create a continuum of housing opportunities (e.g. affordable housing incentives, inclusionary zoning, permanent supportive housing, housing voucher programs, homeownership) to affirmatively further fair housing, dramatically increase the creation of affordable housing opportunities, and create wealth-building opportunities through homeownership.
- Environmental Justice Element of the General Plan.
- Actively Support Community Wealth Building.
- Wealth building opportunities are a critical need in disenfranchised communities to recover from decades of harmful land use policies, the effects of which have been compounded by the economic devastation wrought by COVID-19. To prioritize neighborhood-based community development and wealth creation in Black communities, City Planning must play a key role in developing strategies to incentivize economic empowerment initiatives – including streamlining project approvals and reimagining zoning and land uses that better facilitate inclusion in emerging industries. In the absence of redevelopment agencies in California, City Planning in coordination with the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development (MOED), the Economic and Workforce Development Department (EWDD), and other relevant departments must assume a leadership role to proactively identify opportunities for positive change in Black communities. Economic planning strategies may include Community Land Trusts, Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts, Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities, Affordable Housing Authorities, and Opportunity Zones to capture the value of investments currently being made in Black communities.
- Create Outreach, Engagement, and Education Programs.
- Create and fund a City Planning Outreach Officer to provide oversight and ensure due process in public outreach and community- based field planning for preventive and proactive planning problems. This Officer can draw upon best practices utilized by the South Los Angeles Community Plan update process, the Great Streets Program and their participatory planning and community decision-making model. The Officer would also advance community education and youth engagement programs to cultivate a new generation of planners who possess lived experience in historically marginalized communities.
We look forward to discussing the above items with the Department of City Planning’s Executive Team, members of the Budget and Finance Committee, and City Council. We appreciate your consideration of these critical requests to reinvest in devalued Black communities and bolster the Department’s pursuit of anti-racist policies to create a more equitable built environment for all.
In Power,
The Black Planners of Los Angeles