Mayor Names Interim Top Planner

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Friday that he has hired an interim planning chief, choosing a City Hall outsider to fill the key position.

Villaraigosa turned to Mark Winogrond, who runs a consulting firm in Venice and has worked as a planner for Culver City, Lawndale and West Hollywood. He also teaches planning at UC Berkeley and the UCLA extension school.

Winogrond, 58, said Friday he expects to serve only a short time and has no interest in a permanent job.

“I want to help the department run as smoothly as possible during the transition period,” he said. “My role is not to start major new initiatives or implement or institute significant changes in the department.”

In a statement, Villaraigosa said that Winogrond is expected to provide a “top-to-bottom assessment of the department.”

The planning department is charged with creating and revising zoning plans that dictate how development should proceed in the city.

But over the decades, there has been persistent criticism that the city’s plans fail to take into account the impact of development on traffic, ignore aesthetics and tend to favor cars over people.

Winogrond declined to say what he believes Los Angeles needs in terms of planning, but in previous interviews and publications he has praised cities and neighborhoods in Los Angeles that have rebuilt central business districts.

He has been an advocate for more affordable housing, criticized cities that treat planning departments merely as permitting agencies, and commended cities such as Washington and San Francisco that have encouraged more density near transit stops.

Community meetings were held across Los Angeles this summer at which residents weighed in on attributes they’d like to see in the next planning director. Someone who would create more housing and improve traffic were two frequently discussed qualities.

Con Howe, the planning chief since 1992, left his job with the city on Friday. He had announced his retirement in December, but stayed on during what has become a prolonged search for a replacement.

In October, Howe will become the western director of the Urban Land Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit and research group.

Howe said that he planned to send a memo to the Council summarizing issues in the department, and he provided The Times with a draft.

In the memo, he says the city has been successful in the last five years in steering new housing projects to under-used commercial corridors. He also says 12,000 new housing units have been permitted in the city this year, and if those units are actually built, the city could reach its goal of creating 60,000 residential units between 1998 and 2005.

“It seemed like gloomy times when I started here, but I think the city has recovered,” Howe said in an interview.

“He helped put historic preservation on the map in Los Angeles,” said Councilman Tom LaBonge, who also praised Howe for pushing new zoning rules that allowed old downtown office buildings to be converted to residential units.

Councilman Ed Reyes, a former urban planner, said he hopes that a new chief can finally be hired as the city wrestles with many old problems, such as traffic and the slow pace of redevelopment in poor areas.

“We’re still barbaric in how we link transit to new housing,” said Reyes, citing one area he would like to see improved.

Former Mayor James K. Hahn began a search for the new planning chief last winter and twice extended the application period after being criticized by local advocates for leading a lackluster search.

In early May, the mayor’s office announced there were 10 to 13 applicants worth considering. But that search was apparently scrapped.

In July, just days after Villaraigosa took office, the city hired the headhunting firm William Avery and Associates of Los Gatos to conduct another search. It will be paid $24,450.

Applications are being accepted until the end of this month, and a new planning chief could be in place by year’s end, said Janelle Erickson, a press secretary for the mayor.

The city also is trying to fill the job of general manager of its transportation agency. The current chief, Wayne Tanda, resigned last month.

In addition, the City Council has been trying to find a new chief legislative analyst, one of the top posts in city government, since Ron Deaton left last year to head the city’s Department of Water and Power.

The council has scheduled a Sept. 27 closed session to discuss the analyst search.

The last such meeting, in early August, was rancorous and ended with the council deciding to expand the search from the two finalists.