The Los Angeles City Council approved city staff to begin work on a plethora of small changes and reports related to its Draft Mobility Plan Implementation Ordinance recommended by the Transportation Committee to comply with the recently passed Measure HLA.

The ballot measure passed in March requires aspects of the city’s Mobility Plan to be implemented in areas where it wants to make improvements to city-owned rights of way. Adopted in September 2016 by the Los Angeles City Council, the slow manner in which projects outlined by the plan were implemented became a concern amongst transportation activists, resulting in Measure HLA.

As a result of the measure’s passage, the city has decided to revise how it will implement the Mobility Plan. A project flow chart to implement Measure HLA into the city’s operations was the biggest chunk of this approved motion, which addresses a variety of logistical questions and community concerns regarding the implementation of the projects

Establishing a set of Measure HLA Improvements Standards and Guidelines was one of the actions approved in Tuesday’s motion. This would add optional elements for improvements in the Mobility Plan project areas — which include the Bicycle Enhanced Network, Bike Lane Network, and Pedestrian Enhanced District — as a supplement to the city’s Complete Streets Design Guide.

Creating a standardized timeline for project planning of Measure HLA-related improvements was another of the primary goals of this motion. This goes beyond the logistical planning and includes American Disability Act compliance reviews, design work, utility work, environmental checks, and community engagement.

This planning also includes funding, and the motion includes direction to ensure that funds for projects on streets that are part of the Mobility Plan are being directed towards either utilities for the modes of transportation that are being implemented on those streets or to improve the overall public safety of those streets.

On billboards featured around the city, one of the main arguments against Measure HLA came from the L.A. Fire Department, who pleaded to voters “Don’t slow us down.” To help alleviate these concerns, mandatory consultation with the LAFD, LAPD, and the City Attorney to ensure that City, County, and State police and fire codes are being followed will be a part of the planning process for Measure HLA projects.

A community outreach program will also be established to comply with a 2019 agreement with Fix the City, a NIMBY nonprofit “Known for filing numerous lawsuits against the city in an effort to slow housing development,” according to Courthouse News Service. The lawsuit — known as the Mobility Plan Litigation — led to an agreement that includes the city being required to conduct public outreach for Mobility Plan projects.

Parking is a prevalent community concern for many city development projects, so one of the items that was passed in this motion was the direction to establish the standard for reporting any parking space loss due to Measure HLA-related projects as part of the budget allocation process for that project. Each Council District Office will also receive its own joint briefings from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works every quarter.

Measure HLA and its requirements will need to be applied to certain projects retroactively, but there is a limit to what can and should be modified. For those projects where modifications would cause significant delays — including projects that are at least 25 percent grant-funded, are 50 percent or further along in the design phase, have been cleared under current environmental regulations, or are currently under construction — these changes would not be applied.

While a date was originally specified for the return of these items to the Transportation Committee, an amendment was made to strike that date from the motion, as the listed report back date was in April 2024. The vote to approve the motion was unanimous.

Photo by Canetti on iStockphoto.com