Growth Plans for Los Angeles

Your editorial incorrectly and unfairly leaves one with the impression that Mayor Bradley’s concern with, and attention to, issues of responsible growth management is both newly developed and sporadic. Contrary to the image presented in your editorial, Mayor Bradley has been a strong and consistent supporter of thorough land use planning at both the project level and on citywide issues.

Programs like the community plan revisions and the updating of the citywide elements of the General Plan now under way are restructuring and strengthening the planning framework of the city, bringing them up to current standards. When combined with other programs such as the growth management element now being developed, Los Angeles will have the final element of the “fair, but flexible” plan, for which your editorial calls and towards which the city has been steadily working.

In reference to the mayor’s positions on specific projects your editorial is self-contradicting. On the one hand you chide the mayor for not speaking out on the Farmers Market or Central City West before either has been thoroughly reviewed or gone through necessary hearings, while on the other hand primly reminding everyone that the Ambassador site deserves to be judged solely on the merits. Neither the Farmers Market nor the Central City West specific plans have been brought forward for a full hearing, nor have all the facts been put on the table. I suggest that for the mayor to take a position without benefit of all the facts would be not only unwise but uncharacteristic.

WILLIAM G. LUDDY

President, City Planning Commission