General Plan Review
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INGLEWOOD General Plan Review PHASE 1 REPORT Prepared for: Woodie Tescher, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy PPD 620: General Plans February 27, 2018 CONTRIBUTORS Project Manager: Taylor Kay Copy Edit: Davina Myers and Taylor Kay Booklet Design & Production: Jessica Reyes Part A-Assessment of Existing General Plan • Sahag Yedalian • Taylor Kay • Austin Anderson • Sean Veal Part B-Community Profile and Issues Existing Land Uses • Natalie Hernandez • Lauren Colonna • Andrew Esmailian • Jessica Reyes Economics and Demographics • Anders Engnell • Davina Myers Mobility • Dylan Coyle • Andrew Ramaglia Part C-Work Plan • Taylor Kay • Anders Engnell Front Cover Image: https://calisphere.org/clip/500x500/c45da4134e85c901437abcba49e18930 TABLE OF CONTENT PART A: GENERAL PLAN GENERAL PLAN INTRODUCTION 1 RECENT LEGISLATION 5 OPPORTUNITIES 12 COMMUNITY ISSUES 14 BEST PLANNINGPRACTICES 24 CONSISTENCY 26 PLAN ORGANIZATION 38 PLAN ACCESS 43 PART B: COMMUNITY PROFILE CATEGORIZATION OF LAND USE TYPES 46 KEY DISTRICTS 48 HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS 53 PARKS AND OPEN SPACE 57 DEMOGRAPHICS 59 ECONOMY 62 MOBILITY 66 PART C: WORK PLAN WORK PLAN 79 REFERENCES APPENDIX PART A GENERAL PLAN City of Inglewood General Plan Timeline. The above dates demonstrate when each of the existing elements was last amended or updated (City of Inglewood 2016). 2 1 INTRODUCTIONGENERAL AND HISTORY PLAN THE CITY OF INGLEWOOD The City of Inglewood is a 9.15 square-mile city that was incorporated February 8,1908. It is inland city located in Los Angeles County. It is located south of Los Angeles City, east LA City’s Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Westchester neighborhood and south of it’s Ladera Heights neighborhood. It is one of the northern South Bay cities, neighboring Hawthorne, Gardena, and El Segundo. Inglewood also neighbors the unincorporated LA County territory known as Lennox. It is bound by 64th Street to the north, portions of West Boulevard and Van Ness Avenue to the east, portions of Imperial Highway and the 105 Freeway to the south, and portions of Prairie Ave, La Cienega Boulevard and Portal Ave to the west. THE CITY’S GENERAL PLAN HISTORY State of California requires that each city or county adopt a general plan that must be: • Adopted by legislative act by a legislative body • Comprehensive (geographically and topically) • Long range/term (have a 20-30 year horizon) • Externally and internally consistent (OPR, 2016). The City of Inglewood General Plan contains seven (7) of the eight (8) elements required by the state of California. At present, the General Plan does not contain any optional elements. It is not certain when the first version of the Plan, nor the individual elements, were originally adopted. It’s elements are organized as follows: Phase 1: General Plan Review 3 1. Housing: The Housing Element was most recently updated and adopted in 2014, as required by the California Department of Housing and community Development. It provides policies for a “comprehensive housing program” for the 2013 to 2021 period. Year State of California began requiring this element: 1967 2. Circulation: The Circulation Element was most recently updated and adopted in 1992. It is an analysis of existing and future traffic, transportation, and circulation needs. Year State of California began requiring this element: 1955 3. Conservation: The Conservation Element was most recently updated and adopted in 1997. It provides a long- range plan for conservation of its natural resources: water, soil, natural gas, oil, and air. Year State of California began requiring this element: 1970 4. Land Use: The Land Use Element was most recently amended in 2016. Prior versions were amended in 1973, 1980, 1986, and 2009. It contains policies to direct growth within the city and identify where those land uses will be concentrated on public and private lands. Year State of California began requiring this element: 1955 5. Noise : The Noise Element was most recently updated and adopted in 1987. It provides policies to mitigate the relationship between land use and environmental noise. Year State of California began requiring this element: 197 6. Open Space: The Open Space was most recently updated and adopted in 1995. It makes long-term arrangements to balance urbanization with park and recreation space. Year State of California began requiring this element: 1970 7. Safety: The Safety element was most recently updated and adopted in 1995. It frames policies to protect the city and its community against natural and man-made disasters. Year State of California began requiring this element: 1975 4 WHY CONDUCT A GENERAL PLAN UPDATE NOW? As the past home of the Los Angeles Lakers and the future home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers and potentially the Los Angeles Clippers, the city is continuing its self-designated legacy as the “City of Champions.” Yet--with Transit Oriented Development plans, Active Transportation Plans, the Inglewood Forward Campaign, and more--city administration, the community, and public and private partners are also expanding that identity with forthcoming projects and initiatives promoting economic development, sustainability, and quality of life. With an updated General Plan, these could proceed in a more concerted fashion, rather than in silo. Additionally, at present, the General Plan mostly speaks to an Inglewood of yesterday, and does not comprehensively address major planning issues affecting urban cities today such as climate change, affordable housing,environmental justice, health, smart growth, and more. Recently adopted state legislation is also ushering an extensive General Plan update. (Several laws have been passed pertaining to general plans, climate change must be addressed in the Safety Element, an eighth Environmental Justice Element is now required, and an Air Quality element is recommended). As the City looks to update its General Plan, the new iteration of this Plan will need to link the city’s heritage to its aspirations for its future in an evergreen fashion. This is the preliminary evaluation and recommendations of how to do so. 2 SINCERECENT INGLEWOOD’S LEGISLATION LAST COMPREHENSIVE GENERAL PLAN UPDATE With the exception of its Housing and Land Use Elements, City of Inglewood’s elements were last updated at various points in the 1990s. As such, several laws have been passed in the areas of climate change, housing, and disadvantaged communities that will need to be addressed in the subsequent General Plan update. CA’S CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION In the area of climate change, thirteen pieces of legislation have been passed by the CA legislature and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger and Brown. The two governor’s have committed State of CA to a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Phase 1: General Plan Review 5 RECENT LEGISLATION (CONTINUED) Governor Brown has identified five pillars as part of his vision for CA’s Integrated Plan for Climate Change: • 50% reduction in vehicle petroleum usage • 50% electricity generated from renewable energy • 2x the energy efficiency in buildings by integrating renewable power, energy efficiency, water and waste reduction, and developing cleaner heating fuels • Positioning farms, forests, wetlands, etc for carbon sequestration • Reduction of “short-lived climate pollutants”: methane, black carbon, and fluorinated gases • Updating Safeguard CA: an integrated climate change inventory, adaptation, and resilience strategy (CA ARB, n.d.). SCAG’S Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) and an Alternative Planning Governor’s Climate Change Pillars. The five areas of the economy Strategy (APS). In accordance with SB 375, SCAG’s SCS and APS was accepted Governor Brown identified in his 2015 inaugural address to meet the by CA Air Resources Board via EO in June 2016. (SCAG, 2016). goals of EO B-30-15. (CA Air Resources Board, n.d.) Generally, the legislation requires cities, counties, and regional metropolitan planning organizations to participate in state climate change adaptation efforts. For Inglewood, this means developing plans, policies and programs for: • An Active Transportation Plan (ATP) promoting safety, mobility, non-motorized automobile trips, and Safe Routes to School (SRTS) • Streamlining the CEQA process by limiting reviewable topics • Permitting renewable energy in coordination since utilities must include renewable energy in their portfolio • Reducing barriers to near zero-emission, renewable energy, and transportation options for disadvantaged communities • Decreasing the amount of passenger vehicle use in coordination with Southern CA Association of Governments’ (SCAG), Sustainable Communities Stategy (SCS), and Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) • Update the the Safety Element to include resilliency strategies and the Circulation Element to include Complete Street strategies • Utilize vehicle miles traveled (VMT) as an indicator of traffic impacts instead of vehicle delay and Levels of Service (LOS). 6 (For a full list of legislation and references, see Appendix A). Studies Commissioned as Part of SB 350. These scope of these studies demonstrate the state’s intentionality of linking state priorities (i.e. disadvantaged communities, climate change) through policy. (CA Energy Commission, 2016). INGLEWOOD’S RESPONSE: CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION While the City has has not yet updated its Elements to meet the requirements of the above Climate Change legislation, Inglewood made some changes in response to state climate change priorities. ENERGY AND CLIMATE