Announced this week by Deputy Mayor Robert Steel, a new program being launched by the Department of City Planning on July 2 will seek to dramatically improve the time it takes a project to traverse the city's land use approval process.
Apparently, Los Angeles isn't the only city aiming to streamline its development approvals process. It's unlikely that the timing of these reform efforts is coincidental, as both planning departments respond to developer frustrations with increasing processing times necessitated by complex public processes (and strained planning departments), and pressures from development-friendly mayors to speed up the approval of projects that can bring jobs and increased revenues to city coffers.
Adam Fusfeld provides the details on New York's new Business Process Reform, or BluePRint, program, which promises to expedite by 50% the time it takes to go through the pre-certification process prior to entering the formal public review stage, known as Uniform Land Use Review Process (ULURP).
"During the pre-application process, City Planning works with developers to formulate land use proposals and conduct an environmental analysis ahead of ULURP. Steel said streamlining that process would save developers some $100 million annually, and help the agency work through the 500 applications it receives annually at a faster pace," writes Fusfeld.
"By the time all the planned upgrades are fully implemented in 2015, City Planning promises there will be a system for electronic applications that will allow developers, and the public, to track the certification."
"Revamping the pre-certification process for land use review took $2 million and 18 months to develop. It follows a separate program launched in April that aimed to help speed the approval process for new Department of Building applications through three-dimensional, electronic submissions."
FULL STORY: New program could speed up City Planning review

Maui's Vacation Rental Debate Turns Ugly
Verbal attacks, misinformation campaigns and fistfights plague a high-stakes debate to convert thousands of vacation rentals into long-term housing.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Chicago’s Ghost Rails
Just beneath the surface of the modern city lie the remnants of its expansive early 20th-century streetcar system.

Bend, Oregon Zoning Reforms Prioritize Small-Scale Housing
The city altered its zoning code to allow multi-family housing and eliminated parking mandates citywide.

Amtrak Cutting Jobs, Funding to High-Speed Rail
The agency plans to cut 10 percent of its workforce and has confirmed it will not fund new high-speed rail projects.

LA Denies Basic Services to Unhoused Residents
The city has repeatedly failed to respond to requests for trash pickup at encampment sites, and eliminated a program that provided mobile showers and toilets.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
planning NEXT
Appalachian Highlands Housing Partners
Mpact (founded as Rail~Volution)
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
City of Portland
City of Laramie