Spanning several months, BID staff and consultants have reached out to our non-profit partners in Central City East (CCE) and developed a response to the City’s proposed Central City Community Plan Update. There are 35 Community Plans in the City of LA and each Is updated typically once every 15-20 years. Community Plans dictate policies that affect every property owner, regulating what owners can and cannot do with their property, what can or cannot get built, and what uses are permitted.
In August, the City released its current draft plan, “DTLA 2040,” which includes all of CCE. It calls for continued industrial use and affordable housing, but it limits any new housing by income. There can be only low-income housing and no market rate housing between 5th and 7th Streets in the heart of our district.
Our response to that proposal is contained in our new report, “The Voices of Central City East,” which can be seen here: (LINK TO WEBSITE). Our report contains our recommendations for the future of CCE, and includes a look back at the so-called “policy of containment” that was applied to CCE in the 1970’s. By all accounts the deliberate actions the City took to “contain” homeless services and housing in CCE resulted in unintended negative consequences to our area and, ultimately, to the entire City.
The economic future of any district depends on investment that enables complete neighborhoods to serve the people who live and work there. Our report argues that the City is instead incentivizing the continued separation of our community from its neighbors, ignoring the lessons of the past, and making it more difficult to ensure a multi-income, multi-generational community.
To learn more about DTLA 2040, please go to the City Planning Department website at https://planning.lacity.org/plans-policies/community-plan-update/downtown-los-angeles-community-plan-update
Our report will be submitted to the City during the DTLA 2040 public comment period, which ends on December 4. If you would like to submit a comment to the City directly, you can do so via email to brittany.arceneaux@lacity.org