THE VALLEY FRAMEWORK : General Plan Envisions Future Los Angeles

For the first time in more than two decades, Los Angeles is redrawing its General Plan, the document that serves as the city’s long-term blueprint for growth. General Plans are mandated by state law and help cities plan ahead for major infrastructure improvements such as road widenings and new sewer pipes.

Plans are required to address a wide range of issues. But the most noticeable--and often the most controversial--element in a General Plan deals with land use because it affects directly how neighborhoods develop over many years.

In an attempt to preserve what works about Los Angeles, planners are proposing to leave most of the city unchanged. Most single-family neighborhoods would remain as they are.

Nearly all change would take place in designated commercial centers--like Warner Center or the Van Nuys government center--and along heavily traveled boulevards--such as Ventura or Van Nuys.

This idea, an outgrowth of the 1974 General Plan, channels growth into areas where it can be accommodated and links those areas with mass transit like the Metrolink, the Metro Red Line and buses.

The plan designates some areas as community centers--such as the downtowns of Sherman Oaks or Encino--and others as regional centers--like Porter Ranch or Universal City--where more intense development would be appropriate.

Perhaps the most innovative--and most hotly debated--proposal in the plan are so-called “mixed-use” projects along major boulevards. This sort of development mingles housing with shops and offices.

Source: Los Angeles City Planning Department.

Researched by AARON CURTISS / Los Angeles Times