Crenshaw Corridor Specific Plan Overview

What Stakeholders Should Know About the Crenshaw Corridor Specific Plan

Defining a Specific Plan

• A Specific Plan is an important land use tool that provides a link between the policy goals articulated in the city’s General Plan and specific desires for development and use within a defined geographical area.

• Specific Plans are intended to provide more detailed design guidance and control of local development and uses than the city’s General Plan and the Community Plan

Brief History of the Crenshaw

Specific Plan• Crenshaw Corridor Specific Plan (CSP) was approved in concept with the adoption of the West Adams-Baldwin Hills-Leimert Park Community Plan in 1998, but languished

• A broad community coalition advocated for adoption of the CSP by the L.A. City Council and it was finally approved in 2003 and became effective in 2004

• CSP is one of only two area specific plans in all of South L.A. (USC is the other)– Comparatively Westwood has four

Purpose of CSP

• To provide design regulations to guide all future development on the Crenshaw Corridor from the I-10 fwy to the Inglewood city border, while stimulating economic revitalization

Purpose of the Crenshaw Specific

Plan• To prohibit undesirable uses– Gun shops, pawn shops, motels, swap meets, stand-alone bars, recycling centers, public self-storage

• To limit problematic uses– Fast food drive-thrus, gas stations, & other auto-related uses

Purpose of the Crenshaw Specific

Plan• To enhance community aesthetics by establishing coordinated and comprehensive standards regulating building & wall heights, signage, façade treatments, building setback, landscape requirements, open space, underground utilities, etc.

Purpose of the Crenshaw Specific

Plan• To promote an attractive, vibrant and safe pedestrian environment in the area’s designated as “Pedestrian Oriented”

Pedestrian-Oriented Areas of

the CSP• The Crenshaw Specific Plan designates Subareas E & D (Hyde Park from 52nd to Slauson & Leimert Park Village) as Pedestrian Oriented– Limits the allowable uses

to neighborhood retail or service uses

– Encourages mixed-use development

– Encourages sit-down restaurants with outdoor dining

– Prohibits strip malls– Encourages development of a

continuous wall of retail

Crenshaw Specific Plan Enforcement

• Dept. of Building & Safety: No building permit is issued without compliance with the Specific Plan

• Design Review Board (DRB): A seven member community board reviews “Project” proposals and makes recommendations to the Planning Dept.– DRB is appointed by the Council Member, and consists of: two architects; two members from the fields of planning, urban design and landscape architecture; remaining community members who need not be design professionals

– DRB only exists for the CSP portion in Council District 8

• The Planning Department Issues a Project Permit

Definition of a “Project”

• The construction, erection, addition to or structural alteration of any building or structure or a use of land or change or use on a lot located, in whole or in part, with the Specific Plan area, which requires the issuance of a building, grading or sign permit

• The following are NOT considered a Project and thereby exempt:– Interior construction that does not increase the floor area, or number of vehicle trips

– Building permits required to comply with an order from the Dept. of Building & Safety to repair unsafe or substandard conditions

“Exceptions” from the Crenshaw

Specific Plan• If a Project doesn’t conform with the CSP it must first request a “Exception” from the South L.A. Area Planning Commission (APC)

• Any granted Exception must meet ALL of the required “Findings”:– Compliance would create a hardship on the land owner; property is

exceptional and unique to others in the specific plan area; exception is not detrimental to the public welfare or properties in close proximity; exception is consistent with the intent of the Specific Plan & city’s General Plan

Example of a Project that needs Exceptions from the

pedestrian- oriented requirements of the CSP:

Legal Authority of Specific Plans

• All Specific Plans have the force of law– The Los Angeles City Charter (municipal code)– California land use and planning laws, and legal precedents

• Any APC decision to approve or deny an Exception (based on the Findings) can be appealed to the City Council

• Any City Council decision to approve or deny an Exception can be appealed to the California Courts– Superior Court > Court of Appeals > Supreme Court