In conjunction with the Mar Vista Community Council, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning held a Draft Plan Meeting over Zoom Thursday night where members of the community gave input on the potential changes to the neighborhood’s community plan.

Part of a city’s overall General Plan, community plans can hone in on geographic areas and neighborhoods to tailor guiding policies in those areas. Land use and zoning changes, which impact the size and uses for buildings on individual and groups of parcels, are a major component of these community plans and were the main topic of discussion Thursday.

Mar Vista, Palms, and Del Rey are all considered together under one of four community plans being updated under the Westside umbrella: These plans have not been updated in at least 20 years according to City Planning, with the Mar Vista-Palms-Del Rey plan having been last updated in 1997.

The neighborhood and its needs having changed drastically since the last plan update was an impetus for this update. While each of the plans is being updated under the same umbrella, they have teams assigned to them individually by the City Planning Department. 

Working on the Mar Vista-Palms-Del Rey plan are City Planner Zuriel Espinosa and Planning Assistant Tereza Agesyan, who lead a presentation going over what the plan was and where they were in the draft process at the Zoom meeting. However, most of the time was reserved for a Q&A session where Espinosa and Agesyan fielded questions and noted the feedback being given.

The goal of this update is to guide the addition of new housing and jobs and determine where they would be best located for the neighborhood’s health over the next 20 to 30 years. The planning team considers several criteria when determining where upzoning should be placed, including proximity to transit and freeways, location of jobs, and the existing conditions and zoning.

“Zoning gives us the tools to shape what new buildings will look like,” Agesyan said.

The was general consensus among participants that there’s a need for more housing and for affordable housing, but the location and intention of developers to build large housing projects were at issue among those in attendance. Many of the changes were located on major corridors like Palms Boulevard, Sawtelle Boulevard, Sepulveda Boulevard, Pico Boulevard, and National Boulevard, with the team focused on growth on these corridors while maintaining multi-family housing.

“The community plan strives to make neighborhoods more walkable and foster connections between residents,” Agesyan said.

The first draft map for the changes was presented last August, and the team emphasized that the plan was still fluid and public feedback was still being incorporated. Amongst the most controversial of the changes made to the current zoning code was upzoning to parcels on Grand View Boulevard, Ocean View Avenue, and Mountain View Avenue — known colloquially as the “View Streets.” While this upzoning was minimized from the first draft, it was still not enough for many in attendance who were against upzoning of any kind in the area.

Several speakers spoke against upzoning both on the View Streets and on Palms, and there were many other questions regarding specific tracts. The team acknowledged the feedback they had received regarding the Grand View Boulevard upzoning in particular and said that they would look at that area and consider all feedback.

Some in attendance were worried that the feedback they were providing would fall on deaf ears, but Espinosa noted that this process was still in its preliminary phases. Community outreach for the changes started in 2018, and the team most recently held an office hours session in May.

The current expectation is that these plans will not be presented to the Planning Commission or Los Angeles City Council until 2026. The team said that the next update to the plan may come at the end of the year, but nothing is currently set.

Image from the L.A. City Planning Department.