While I’m out this week, the Chair of PlanCheckNC, Cindy Cleghorn, accepted my offer to write the GM Message. Cindy and the steering committee of 12 members are not only busy with their own neighborhood land use issues, they also bring Neighborhood Council leaders together each month to educate and network.
We’re so lucky to have PlanCheckNC as a resource for Neighborhood Councils throughout the city and I thank Cindy for taking the time to share her thoughts with you today.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Grayce Liu,
General Manager
Department of Neighborhood Empowerment
PlanCheckNC: Helping Give Voice to the Future of Our Communities – By Cindy Cleghorn, PlanCheckNC Chair
Sometimes, it’s about a cell tower being proposed…next to your kids’ school. Sometimes, it’s about new development that proposes to bulldoze a hillside. Sometimes, it’s about plans to use land for an entire subdivision of solar panels…next to equestrian and wildlife communities. ALL of the time, it involves Land Use and Zoning: one of the biggest issues to bring out Neighborhood Council and community stakeholders.
In 2008 the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning and PlanCheckNC established the Planning Pilot Program to address community concerns and to give us all a voice. It took a great deal of work by many volunteers working with City Planning to realize the “Early Notification” resource for Neighborhood Councils. Section 907 of the LA City Charter states that the Regulations shall establish procedures for receiving input from neighborhood councils prior to decisions by the City Council, City Council Committees and boards and commissions. The Planning Pilot Program is the perfect collaboration.
But, how is the Planning Pilot Program working? In most cases, it works well. Lately though with adjustments in Case Processing procedures, some Neighborhood Councils are seeing Determination Letters out before the application is received by the Neighborhood Council. And that’s unfortunate. It doesn’t benefit the community stakeholders just as much as it doesn’t benefit the City and its best future.
Neighborhood Councils need to do their part. Doing their part means being informed and educated with the tools to develop and communicate their community’s vision. This is why volunteers created PlanCheckNC, a grassroots alliance created by Community and Neighborhood Council stakeholders. PlanCheckNC meets monthly on the second Saturday in a central part of the City with volunteers from all parts of the City coming together to hear presentations from the City Planning Department, developers, experts within the City, State, County and independently. The goal of PlanCheckNC is to help Neighborhood Councils and their stakeholders to have the knowledge and tools to develop a vision reflective of the values of neighborhood residents and to develop and implement a land use framework that enables all stakeholders to feel that they are part of the community – supported, safe and valued by the community.
One major initiative underway in which PlanCheckNC needs to be involved is the City’s current reCodeLA project to update the City’s Zoning Code. This is a five year work project that includes volunteer advisory recommendations. More Neighborhood Councils need to be involved in this process and this is what we encourage, update and promote at PlanCheckNC meetings.
Saturday, July 12 is the next PlanCheck NC meeting to be held at the Glassell Park Community Center, 3750 N. Verdugo Rd., Los Angeles 90065 . We will be talking about the latest with the City’s Sign Regulations and Protection from Sign Intrusions. In addition we will have updates from the City Planning Department. Future meetings will cover CEQA, Roundtable with the City Attorney and in November Planning 101 co-hosted by the Valley Alliance of Neighborhood Councils. If your Neighborhood Council would like assistance with setting up and improving the effectiveness of your Land Use Committee, PlanCheckNC volunteers can help. PlanCheckNC meetings are held on the 2nd Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. For more information and meeting location visit PlanCheckNCLA.com