City of Los Angeles Planning Director Gail Goldberg announced her retirement recently, which has been covered by numerous sources. Here are two good articles that talk about her impact on planning, the city and opportunities for future innovation now that she's leaving: LA Times and more from The Architect's Newspaper.
The LA River Master Plan and construction of dozens of miles of rail via Measure R are two of the most obvious opportunities for LA to remake itself in the coming years. Time will tell how the City's new planning director will manage these opportunities while integrating principles of sustainability. In many ways, without any clear direction about how LA ought to grow sustainably over the coming decades, there is a real chance for the new director to put their imprint on the issue and begin to frame the debate.
What would you like to see LA's new planning chief do? What advice would you offer to the incoming planning director? How do you think they should define "sustainability" for the city?
The Mayor appears to have chosen Gail's replacement, going in-house for the selection. The focus now appears to be on expediting the planning/permitting process by promoting the zoning administrator. Turning a planning agency into an instrument for private capital and business is a treacherous road that will likely put at risk the public good. Some projects deserve to be advanced quickly and others don't; the key is to know which ones to back (hence strategic planning). Simply transforming planning into a nothing more than a streamlined permitting process is not a good strategy for the city and its residents, though one big business and developers will certainly be happy with. Read more here and decide for yourself:
ReplyDeletehttp://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/07/villaraigosa-said-to-be-shifting-zoning-administrator-to-top-planning-department-post.html