The Los Angeles '2 Percent Strategy'

It's ironic that Los Angeles -- a city 'maligned as traffic-choked and strip-malled' -- is emerging as a model for sustainable urban design by focusing development on just 2% of the city's land.

1 minute read

September 25, 2005, 5:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"It's ironic that Los Angeles, a city that's maligned as traffic-choked and strip-malled and pilloried as the poster city for smog and sprawl, is emerging as one of the country’s premier laboratories for sustainable planning and design. Under the pressures of growth, traffic, and shifting demographics, the metropolis is undergoing a metamorphosis, becoming denser and reorganizing itself around its many centers and transportation corridors.

... Here in Southern California, the place that practically invented sprawl, SCAG's 83-member Regional Council agreed upon what it calls the '2 Percent Strategy,' which directs all new development and population growth (an estimated six million more people by 2030) onto just 2 percent of the land."

Saturday, September 24, 2005 in LA Weekly

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