2012 Legislative Briefs

7/30/2019 2012 Legislative Briefs

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THE 2012 AIA|LA ISSUE BRIEFS

IMPROVING THE

ENVIRONMENT & ECONOMICSOF LOS ANGELES: BY DESIGN

ROO Architects - Pacoima Neighborhood City Hall


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Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc. - New Carver Apartments

Te LADG - 620 South Main Street


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In these economically challenging times,how do we leverage our investments in inrastructure

and public amenities to ensure that we are enhancing

the aesthetics o our neighborhoods and making ourcommunities more desirable and prosperous?

Healthy and beautiul places thrive and become economic engines that nourish

and replenish our citys natural and nancial resources. Enhancing the publicrealm to maximize economic and environmental perormance is essential tothe fscal health o the City o Los Angeles, especially i we want to prosper incomparison to other world-class cities.

For over a decade, AIA|LA has coordinated our annual Legislative Day at City Hallto advocate or a more beautiul and better designed Los Angeles. City leadershiphas listened and we thank you! Working together, weve accomplished numerousinitiatives to make the city a better place.

Together, weve successfully:

Expanded alternative project delivery methods for capital investment Improved procument methods for selecting architects Recommended a path to reduce the Gross-Receipts Business Tax Implemented key Development Reform strategies Updated numerous citywide planning and land-use ordinances

Many AIA|LA architects have been appointed to city commissions and designreview boards. Numerous more have joined neighborhood councils and other

community groups. We are delighted to serve as a leadership resource and we lookorward to orging stronger connections in the years ahead.

For 2012, we are highlighting our key issues that will help urther transorm theCity o Los Angeles into a more economically and environmentally sustainableplace.

We recommend city leadership to:

1. Expand LADWPs Feed-In-Tarif Program

2. Improve LADBS L.A.R.R. Process

3. Optimize the Zoning Code Reorm Process

4. Appoint Architects to Serve on City Commissions

5. Invest in Green Inrastructure + Green Public Spaces

When Im working on a problem, I never think about beauty.But when Ive nished, i the solution is not beautiul I know its wrong.

- R. Buckminster Fuller


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OBJECTIVE:

EXPAND LADWPs FEED-IN-TARIFF PROGRAM

Brooks + Scarpa Architects - House in Venice, CA


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ISSUE

In April 2012, LADWP initiated a 10 Megawatt Feed-in-ari (Fi) demonstrationprogram. Applications have been accepted and contracts will be awarded in November.As a pilot program, AIA|LA recognizes that this is a positive rst step. However, to help

the City o Los Angeles meet the state mandated requirement o a 33% renewable energyportolio by 2020, we encourage LADWP to pro-actively expand the Fi program andurther streamline the application process so that more single-amily homeowners andsmall-to-medium size businesses are able to participate. Trough August 2012, only26 applications had been received or a total o 7 MW o distributed power. Lets worktogether to ensure the programs long-term success and a sustainable uture or our City.

PROPOSAL

Create a true eed-in-tari by improving the program as ollows:

Create a simple, ideally one page contract Award access to the program on a rst-come-rst-served basis Oer a xed rate of return to renewable energy suppliers Reduce the application fee to a nominal level Cover the interconnection analysis and any upgrade costs as part of the program ratherthan burdening the individual renewable energy supplier

Expand the program with an additional 150 MW in 2014

DISCUSSION

As Angelenos, we are ortunate to own our utility company. As a public entity nanced bytax and rate-payers, LADWP can urther evolve to serve the City o Los Angeles in two-ways: to continue to provide us with a sae, reliable and sustainable source o water andelectricity, and to acilitate greater economic development by enabling property owners to

earn a return on their investment in distributed power generation. Fostering incentivesor people to create more energy than they consume, Los Angeles, and the entire SouthernCaliornia region, can become stewards o a healthier planet and realize greater economicprosperity in the process. AIA|LA would like to work more closely with LADWP leadershipto ensure the implementation o a true Feed-in-ari program.

e plan to expand the current 10 MW program to 150 MW in 2013 is a good start. Totruly lead, LADWP should expand the program with an additional 150 MW of renewablegeneration available in 2014. Although we understand that LADWPs proportionate share

of the AB 32 mandated statewide target of 750 MW is only 75 MW, AIA|LA encouragesLADWP to take a leadership position by exceeding the minimal goals o the State andpresent a model to the nation in the ways Southern Caliornia is addressing climate change.In addition to expanding the size o the program, it is vital that LADWP streamlinethe application process. Hallmarks o a properly designed Fi are a simple contract(ideally one page), a low application ee, a rst-come-rst-served application acceptanceprocess, and a xed, pre-determined rate paid to the energy provider. Unortunately,the LADWP program is more complicated than it should be. Particularly onerous isthe high interconnection study ee and the act that the applicant is expected to pay or

interconnection upgrades to the grid. We encourage LADWP to modernize its power gridas a benet to all rate payers so that we can avoid building remote plants and expensivetransmission lines, which would otherwise be necessary without distributed powerproduced locally in Los Angeles.

LAWDP needs this power to meet its renewable energy goals. Revising the program in themanner enumerated above will expand the pool o private interests able and incentivizedto participate in meeting the regions renewable energy requirements. With 12 GW opower available in the Los Angeles basin (as shown in a recent UCLA Luskin Center

For Innovation study), there is a genuine opportunity or Los Angeles to become a net-energy provider to the region. Robust Fi programs proven eective around the world areresponsible or the vast majority o installed distributed power (as evidenced in Germany,Italy, Spain, and Japan). With an improved process, Los Angeles and its utility can helpshow the country the way orward.


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OBJECTIVE:

IMPROVE THE LADBS

RESEARCH REPORT PROCESS

Lorcan OHerlihy Architects [LOHA} - Skid Row Housting rust


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ISSUE

AIA|LA is eager to continue lending its expertise and assist the LADBS and GeneralManager Bud Ovrom in clarifying and streamlining the Los Angeles Research Report(LARR) process. In June 2012, GM Ovrom asked AIA|LA to solicit feedback from architects

about the current LARR Process. We issued a survey and received candid, anecdotalresponses from 74 individuals. Most indicated their dissatisfaction with the current LARRprocess. In early August, AIA|LA and LADBS management met to discuss the survey anddetermine the best way orward to an improved LARR. We are extremely encouraged thatBud Ovrom, Ray Chan and Ifa Kashe have committed LADBS management to this eort.Support rom the City Council will help urther prioritize LARR improvements as part oa greater development reorm and economic development eort.

PROPOSAL

o improve the LARR process the ollowing changes should be implemented:

Clarify that only structural components require a LARR report. Clarify that when compliant with the LA City Building Code, other test methodologiessuch as ICBO, UL, ICC, etc. are acceptable for all components including structuralcomponents. Create a user accessible LARR data base

Aprise all Plan Check Engineers of changes as they come on line. As a long term goal, work with the Division of State Architect to move this program tothe State level so that structural issues are given the priority they deserve in Caliornia, asa statewide issue rather than an onerous regulatory patchwork.

DISCUSSION

Since the late 1960s, Te City o Los Angeles Department o Building and Saety has

provided the services o a testing lab to approve alternate materials and building productsmeasuring quality, re resistance, strength, eectiveness, durability and safety. Over theyears, however, the process or obtaining a Los Angeles Research Report (LARR) hasbecome cumbersome; we eel the process will benet rom a re-examination in light ocitywide goals and priorities.

As currently implemented, the LARR process sties creative innovation and adds an undueburden on development in Los Angeles. In order to ensure a holistic, design-thinkingapproach to updating the LARR process, AIA|LA encourages City Council and the

Department o Building and Saety to re-examine whether Los Angeles needs a specialand unique process, one not required by other jurisdictions. Our neighboring cities ofPasadena, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Glendale, Burbank, Culver City, etc., have norequirement or additional Research Reports; in all these locations ICC and UL listingssuce. New and innovative non-structural materials coming on line are not available toprojects built in the City o Los Angeles without going through the burdensome, lengthyand expensive RR process.

Te City should commit to ostering innovation and supporting manuacturers, material

innovators and the design community as a whole by making it easier to utilize new buildingmaterials. More and more ofen we nd that the research reports are redundant, simply avalidation o reports prepared by qualied and nationally recognized testing agencies, notthe result o research originated by the City. Clearly, the benet o providing this serviceis questionable, and eliminating redundant procedures should be part o the Citys largergoal o development reorm. At the same time, the process itsel may iner a liability ontothe City or reports not ully researched and vetted by its agencies.

On behalf of our membership and our clients, we feel it is important to evaluate the

economic impacts o the LARR process, and point out these impacts in light o other Citygoals.

AIA|LA looks forward to working with Mr. Ovrom and the LADBS leadership to renethe LARR process so that it oers the greatest benet to the City and its residents andworks together, in an eective way, with the ongoing process o development reorm orLos Angeles.


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OBJECTIVE:

OPTIMIZE THE ZONING CODEREFORM PROCESS

a l m project, inc. - Sprinkles Ice Cream


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ISSUE

e Department of Planning is currently engaged in a ve-year, $5M process to performa comprehensive revision to the Zoning Code, a document that hasnt been substantiallyupdated since its inception in 1946. e AIA|LA was a strong advocate for this initiative as

it proceeded through Council. Te Request or Proposal (RFP) published in August 2012outlines a broad scope or the Zoning Code revisions as well as a substantial public process.Te AIA|LA looks orward to active engagement on the Policy Advisory Committee, inaddition to working in partnership with the Department o City Planning (DCP) as thescope and goals o the eort are urther claried.

In addition, we welcome the opportunity to work with DCP to develop planning toolsthat encourage great architecture and urban design. Te revised Zoning Code will enablearchitects and designers to create great places that will truly enhance our City, improve our

quality o lie and move us orward as a world-class metropolis in the 21st century.

PROPOSAL

Create a world-class, uniquely compelling citywide zoning code that is clear andpredictable by ollowing these principals:

Web-based and user-friendly; Encourages design innovation;

Re-evaluates land-use compatibilities for the 21st century; Considers all other regulations which may make zoning concerns either redundant orreductive and consolidates otherwise conicting regulations or clarity and consistency; Fully integrates a high degree of design-intelligence to rethinking the objectives/mission o the zoning code and integrates design guidelines and highlights best practicesto enable and encourage design excellence; Provides a variety of tools necessary to tailor requirements for unique community planareas and neighborhoods; Coordinates fully with the mobility element update currently in progress;

Envisions the future narrative of Los Angeles and respects the dynamics of our past; Utilizes a broad understanding of the social, environmental and economic goals ofzoning regulations in the 21st Century; Provides a well-designed, state-of-the-art and award-winning planning tool.

DISCUSSION

Te rst goal is to ensure that we are asking the right questions: What are the specic

problems we are trying to solve and what are the achievable goals we want to include indevelopment o the new Zoning Code? How can zoning and mobility be ully integratedor a well-designed city? How can we dene compatible land-uses or todays urbanenvironment and or the oreseeable uture? How can a Zoning Code or the entire cityprovide requirements that are responsive to the unique characteristics o each communityplan area, district and neighborhood? How can we craf this document to promoteeconomic and environmental sustainability or our region?

Great architecture and urban design is essential to the economic vitality and quality o lie

throughout the City o Los Angeles. AIA|LA is overwhelmingly in support o enablingand encouraging design excellence as an essential goal o the new Zoning Code. Ratherthan see its role as restrictive, the Zoning Code must create a set o tools that encourageinnovation in both the public and the private realm.

Furthermore, AIA|LA highlights the importance o having the new code provide clarity sothat developers and community-members alike can easily understand requirements. Teissues described in the code are three-dimensional and can most clearly and accuratelybe described with diagrams, drawings and other graphics. City documents, aimed atencouraging the growth and development o our city need to be clear in both their intentand their implementation; visual tools are an essential part o this process.

Tis is an incredible opportunity or the City o Los Angeles to take an active role inshaping its uture. Te new Zoning Code needs is our opportunity to promote a uture thatis vibrant, sustainable, responsive and beautiul.


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OBJECTIVE:

APPOINT ARCHITECTS TO

SERVE ON CITY COMMISSIONS

MDA Johnson Favaro - West Hollywood Library


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ISSUE

Design is a critical actor in the consideration o projects that will signicantlyaect and shape the uture o the City o Los Angeles. Tere are many

commissions, boards, and committees empowered to review developmentprojects and to create and implement policies that have a signicant impact on

the built environment o our city.

PROPOSAL

AIA|LA requests that the City o Los Angeles expand the appointment o designproessionals in general and architects in particular to sit on commissions,boards and committees with authority to review and approve projects aectingthe environment o our city. Te list o such entities includes but is not limitedto:

Aordable Housing Commission Area Planning Commissions of Central, East LA, Harbor, North Valley, SouthLA, South Valley, and West LA Board o Airport Commissioners

Board o Building and Saety Commissioners Board o Harbor Commissioners Board o Library Commissioners Board of Los Angeles Export Terminal Board o Neighborhood Commissioners Board o Public Works Commissioners Board o Recreation and Park Commissioners Board o ransportation Commissioners

Board o Water and Power Commissioners Community Redevelopment Agency Cultural Heritage Commission El Pueblo De Los Angeles Historical Monument Authority Environmental Aairs Commission Housing Authority o the City o Los Angeles Industrial Development Authority

- Regional Boards -

Metropolitan ransportation Authority Metropolitan Water District o Southern Caliornia

DISCUSSION

Architects, landscape architects and other design proessionals are trained tounderstand and think critically and creatively about issues involving the physicalenvironment. Architects and design proessionals are necessary on appointed

bodies that review projects and develop and implement design policies in LosAngeles. AIA|LA maintains a list o architects interested in serving as memberso the above mentioned commissions, boards and committees; these names areavailable to the City upon request. Te City will benet greatly by inclusion oarchitects in the decision-making process concerning the built environment.


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Belzberg Architects - Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaustat Pan Pacic Park

Mia Lehrer + Associates - South Los Angeles Wetland Park

OBJECTIVE:

INVEST IN GREEN

INFRASTRUCTURE + GREENPUBLIC SPACES TO CLEAN

OUR REGIONAL WATERSHED

Opportunity:

The Proposed Los AngelesCounty Clean Water, Clean

Beaches Measure


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ISSUE

Citywide, we ace a lack o open space, our streets and roadbeds are degraded andimpervious, and our River has historically been treated as a drainage channel. TeCounty o Los Angeles Flood Control District is drafing a Clean Water, Clean Beaches

(Water Quality Improvement Projects) parcel ee estimated to generate over $270 milliondollars annually to improve the inrastructure o the regional watershed. Tis is anunprecedented opportunity to create an exciting, livable, and sustainable city, with newpublic spaces and streets that simultaneously benet the watershed.

With the mail home balloting or the measure imminent in April 2013, time is o theessence. Te measure, as currently drafed, does not adequately address the planningand design criteria by which projects would be selected, does not emphasize the needor projects to be highly visible public amenities, and does not promote transparency in

administering the measure. I this measure is to be supported by the public, it must oerthe public tangible results that improve their lives in this city.

Te AIA|LA urges the City Council to take an active role in establishing the criteria bywhich the water quality projects will be selected and unded, and urges specic set asidesor projects which benet the public in a visible, physical orm, especially water qualitycomponents o Los Angeles River projects.

PROPOSALWe encourage the City Council to promote River revitalization, complete streets andclean watersheds with the ollowing recommendations:

Request that the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works appoint DesignProfessionals to all the proposed Water Quality Projects Oversight Boards and panels toprovide a regional and coherent urban design vision. Instruct the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation to create funding set-asides

or demonstrable, visible, green inrastructure, and in particular to allocate anannual unding amount o 30% o the Citys annual allocation or Los Angeles RiverRevitalization water quality projects, as a primary means o ullling the goals o theCounty o Los Angeles Clean Water Measure. Establish an ocial City of Los Angeles Oversight Committee to review and approveprojects and programs that will draw upon the annual City unding rom the Bondallocations. Instruct the City of Los Angeles Department of Street Services to adopt CompleteStreet design guidelines, to allow the ongoing implementation o green streets as a means

o cleaning the watershed. Work with the County to establish clear project criteria to assure well designed, publicamenity ocused, cost-eective, measurable, multiple-benet projects that green ourpublic spaces while ullling the needs o the proposed County o Los Angeles CleanWater Measure. Reduce the percentage of revenue dedicated to administrative fees to less thanthe currently proposed $54 million in order to increase spending on infrastructureimplementation and to increase transparency in administering the measure. Expand the City parklet pilot program citywide in order to increase permeability and

open space, and to convert underutilized spaces into amenities to clean the watershed.

DISCUSSION

AIA|LA supports the proposed County o Los Angeles Clean Water Measures intentto clean our rivers, lakes, beaches and coastal waters, and we recognize this as anunprecedented opportunity to work toward a number o goals that concerned citizens,politicians, designers and environmentalists have been discussing or nearly a generation.

I approved by the voters in April 2013, the Clean Water Measure will impose a parcel eeon land in the range of $54 to $10,000 per annum. e measure is expected to generatean estimated $270 million per year or the region, in perpetuity, with a direct allocationto the City o Los Angeles o approximately $30 million, to be spent on projects that cansubstantially improve the health o our watershed.


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(CLEAN WATERSHEDS continued...)

We eel it is essential that an undertaking o this magnitude have a regional, syntheticvision an urban design that overlays the implementation of the large variety of specicprojects to be unded by this measure. Although the program intent specically states thatdesign is one o the major purposes o the unding, as currently conceived, the constitutionof the Oversight Boards does not mandate the inclusion of Design Professionals. We urgethe inclusion o design proessionals on all o the new Boards and Agencies, both to assistin creating clear project criteria, and in generating a strategic and coherent urban designoverview.

Complete streets, along with increased parkland, will alleviate the pressures on the stormdrain system, using green inrastructure to help clean the watershed and provide benetsto the public - pedestrian and bike riendly streets, a revitalized River, mitigated stormwater runo, reduced heat gain, and open space or a park starved Los Angeles. AIA|LArecommends that the City o Los Angeles share o the Clean Water Measure revenue beapplied to these green inrastructure projects. Te LA City Bureau o Sanitation, chargedwith representing Los Angeles in authorship o the Measure, should be instructed tospeciy set-asides or such projects in lieu o invisible projects, such as undergroundpipes, street-sweeping and maintenance programs.

Te AIA|LA suggests that water quality related River Revitalization projects, which havebeen City Council approved in 2007, receive dedicated unding o no less than 30% o the

Citys allocation (approximately $10 million annually), without the need to apply orunding. Te Los Angeles River is a resource central to the health o the entire regionswaters. We know how well you understand that revitalizing the Los Angeles River canprovide much needed open-space, better connections between our communities, andimprove our regions ability to attract investment.

Further, the AIA|LA urges that administrative caps proposed be reduced, in order tomaximize the transparency o the program and the benet to the public.AIA|LA is available as a leadership resource and we look orward to remaining engaged in

the process o ensuring a healthy watershed or generations to come.

I dont divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one.- Luis Barragn


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OUR MISSION ::

PROVIDING THE LEADERSHIP TO

IMPROVE THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Te Los Angeles chapter o the American Institute o Architects (AIA|LA) isan organization of over 3200 design professionals. Our mission is to provideleadership in improving the built environment o Los Angeles, and the health andwellbeing o the citizens that it supports.

It is with care and compassion or our city that we strive through various advocacyinitiatives and proessional outreach programs to highlight the vital role oarchitecture and urban design.

Advancing and expanding the vital role o architecture and urban design:

Ensures a more attractive and livable city Fosters a healthier and more sustainable environment Builds cultural capital by attracting visitors and tourist dollars Enlivens communities and bolsters civic pride Enables greater cost-savings and a higher return on public investments

Our profession is the leading edge of a building industry that accounts for one innine dollars of our national $14 trillion gross domestic product. Architects are

vital to the economic recovery o our city; when an architect is hired, 30 additionaljobs are created to build what we design.

Michael W. Folonis Architects - UCLA Outpatient Surgery & Medical Building


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AIA Los AngelesA Chapter of the American Institute of Architects

For more information, please contact:

Will Wright, Hon. AIA|LADirector o Government & Public AfairsAIA Los Angeles3780 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 800Los Angeles, CA 90010

tel.: 1.213.639.0764

email: [email protected]

To create, one must rst question everything. - Eileen Gray

2012 Legislative Briefs

Documents

Transcript of 2012 Legislative Briefs