Back in 2016, the Department of City Planning launched development of a new Purple Line Transit Neighborhood Plan, an effort to re-imagine planning and zoning in areas adjacent to the new Purple Line Subway Extension corridor. It was one of several Transit Neighborhood Plans being developed for transit-adjacent areas throughout the city.
With a large community outreach effort to seek input from neighbors about the kinds of development, housing, transportation, landscaping, architecture, and services they’d like to see in the target areas, the plan’s development continued over the next few years with a lengthy series of community surveys, office hours, meetings, and workshop sessions.
But little has been heard locally about the project since initial results of the community surveys were released in August, 2019, and the city released a TNP Project Summary Report and Interactive Story Map in the summer of 2020.
Yesterday, however, the Planning Department announced in a letter to stakeholders that the Purple Line TNP project is now being put on hold until after the scheduled update of the larger area Wilshire Community Plan begins in 2022. According to the letter, the move is a result of pandemic-induced reductions in Planning Department resources, and the process of reassessing and realigning programs as a result of those reductions.
According to the letter:
“…LA City Planning will be pausing our current efforts on the Metro Purple Line Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP) until the Wilshire Community Plan program commences in 2022. Aligning the Purple Line TNP with the larger update to the Wilshire Community Plan will allow for a holistic and comprehensive approach to long-range planning in this part of the City, and along the larger Purple Line (D) Line corridor. The larger Community Plan update process will present a stronger opportunity to augment the Purple Line TNP with supportive Community Plan policies and programs that can address concerns about potential displacement, and protection of affordable and rent-stabilized housing. It will also allow for greater consideration as to how best to plan for growth in employment and housing across the large Community Plan area.”
Interestingly, delaying development of the TNP until after the Wilshire Community Plan is updated is something many neighbors requested at the community meetings on the TNP over the years, saying it didn’t make sense to focus on one small part of a larger Community Plan area when that larger area plan was also due for an update. (All of the city’s Transit Neighborhood Plans are supposed to be designed to work within the context of both the larger Community Plans and the city’s General Plan, which govern patterns of development and land use throughout the city.)
According to yesterday’s letter, the city will pick up the Purple Line Transit Neighborhood Plan again in 2022, “continuing the conversation where things have paused” and that “We remain committed to this work program even with the economic and staffing impacts that have arisen as a result of this pandemic.”
In the meantime, questions can be directed to Planning Department staffers Matt Gamboa at [email protected], or Priya Mehendale at [email protected].
