L.A. City's new Planning Director, Gail Goldberg, is now nearly as visible as the city's mayor or chief of police. She is at the beginning of a tough uphill battle to change planning in Los Angeles.
The accomplishment that emphatically put San Diego on the map in planning circles was the "City of Villages," a plan to create or expand several neighborhood centers, each with all of the urban accouterments: businesses, residences, schools, parks and mass transit.
"Upon her arrival [in Los Angeles], Goldberg started by tackling internal issues in her City Hall office. She hired new planners, named the department's first historic-preservation manager, put deputies to work on building design guidelines and began writing nine new community plans to her standards.
Her standards? That anyone can read them and understand what they allow to be built, something she finds lacking in the city's 30-plus current plans."
..."Goldberg moved to Larchmont Village, a few miles west of downtown, because it met her three criteria for a neighborhood: She could walk to a coffeehouse, a bookstore and a movie theater, though she's still driving to City Hall."
FULL STORY: She has a city to build on

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

San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.

The Tiny, Adorable $7,000 Car Turning Japan Onto EVs
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San Diego Votes to Rein in “Towering” ADUs
City council voted to limit the number of units in accessory buildings to six — after confronting backyard developments of up to 100 units behind a single family home.

Texas Legislature’s Surprising Pro-Housing Swing
Smaller homes on smaller lots, office to apartment conversions, and 40% less say for NIMBYs, vote state lawmakers.

Even Edmonton Wants Single Staircase Buildings
Canada's second most affordable major city joins those angling to nix the requirement for two staircases in multi-family buildings.
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