In the past, local sustainability efforts seemed insignificant compared to the scale of global climate change. But as local sustainability movements, especially in building and planning, gain momentum among cities, green planning is increasingly en vogue. To better understand the role of local planning in the world’s fight to end global warming, VerdeXchange was pleased to speak with Claire Bowin, head of the Los Angeles Department of City Planning’s green building program.
Next month the largest cities in the world—the C40—will converge on New York for a conference hosted by Mayor Bloomberg about what they are doing to green their cities. How will L.A. and the Planning Department contribute to the forthcoming exchange?
The Department of City Planning is doing several things to help the city become green and, ultimately, more sustainable. They’re based around two basic themes: smart growth and green building.
Smart growth is one of the best ways to support sustainability. Increased development around transit stations helps to promote walking, helps get people out of their cars, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and helps people stay healthy by reducing asthma and obesity. Smart growth principles were laid out a decade ago in the general plan and they set the tone for how the city should grow in the future. We are seeing the positive results of those principles today in places like Downtown and Hollywood. These are now places where people really can leave the car at home, or abandon the car all together, and still have an incredible range of mobility.
To expand this green and sustainable way of living, the department is currently developing transit-oriented development plans for eight of the new stations that will open up along the Exposition Line and Gold Line Eastside Extension within the next three years. To further encourage the smart growth lifestyle, the department is updating the “transportation element” as the “mobility element,” which will place increased emphasis on bicycle and pedestrian mobility. During this update process we will be critically examining the current designs of our streets and exploring opportunities to redesign them as multi-purpose public places.
While smart growth looks at the city holistically and encourages us to use land and transportation corridors more sustainably, the green building conversation is focused specifically on buildings and their sites. Since 2002, the city has mandated that all of its new municipal buildings larger than 7,500 square feet be built to a LEED-certified standard. As a result of this experience we’re ready to embark upon a private sector green building program.
The benefits of a green building are really tremendous. A green building uses less energy, less water, emits fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and generally provides a more positive environment for people who work and/or live in them. Studies show that people who work in green buildings are healthier, happier, and more productive. Fortunately, the development community is ready for this next step and is taking an active role in working with us to develop this new program.
What is the contribution and jurisdiction of the Planning Commission and Planning Department to these agendas?
We are taking the lead, with the support of the City Council and mayor’s office, to develop the green building program. Much of the agenda for the green building program builds from the policies set forth in the recently adopted Integrated Resources Plan, which focuses on water conservation and recycling. We are now halfway through a series of green-building focus groups that we have been holding with numerous stakeholders in the community, including architects and developers who build everything from multi-family, to high rise, to industrial buildings, to commercial core and shell—getting their input as to what obstacles they face when they try to build green buildings in the city. We’re learning about the kind of incentives they need, and whether they are financial or more process-oriented.
What are the most effective incentives?
We are hearing a lot about the need to facilitate the process, especially from the builders who are striving for performance excellence, such as Silver or Platinum LEED standards. To achieve that, there are a lot of things—grey water for example—where they are running into obstacles. They are saying that they need help facilitating a dialogue between the numerous departments that often have jurisdiction over a particular item. This creates a lot of uncertainty. They are asking us to put together a case management process that will bring together all the different departments to focus specifically on the “green” aspects of a building.
What can you do to foster intergovernmental and department collaboration?
We are having conversations with the various departments to discuss the feasibility of this. Fortunately, there is a great amount of collaboration right now between the city’s departments. We are joined in these focus groups by Building and Safety, the Bureau of Sanitation, the CRA, and others who would be participating in this case management process, and so we’re hoping to have something in place by early next year.
The L.A. Planning Department is and will be engaged in a lot of community plans. How will the Mayor’s green agenda impact those community plans?
The community plan updates provide an opportunity for us to make the connection between sustainability and land use in a way we have never done before. Because the green agenda is a front and center topic right now it provides us the opportunity to discuss the benefits of re-thinking how we accommodate our future growth. Communities are very concerned about the lack of safe and walkable streets for their children. They recognize the value of wide sidewalks and tree lined streets in promoting a positive environment, but they also are frustrated with congestion. It’s a tough conversation because it’s about helping people understand that congestion relief doesn’t come from wider streets, which is what they are often asking for. In fact it often comes from the opposite. By providing more walkable and bicycle friendly streets that connect to local services, we can encourage people to get out of their cars and actually reduce congestion.
But, these are long-term solutions, and our planners are having conversations that help communities look at the long term effects of land use and transportation decisions. Planners are also having dialogues with communities that help them see the positive impact that they as individuals can have by making their own behavioral changes such as walking or biking for just one or two trips a week.
And while there will be common themes that run through all of the community plans, each community is distinct, and many of the smart growth solutions will reflect that. For example, the vision in the Hollywood Community Plan that is being completed now will reflect the intensification that has already taken place at the Red Line stations. The Boyle Heights and South L.A. plans, which are underway now, will be looking at how to benefit from and accommodate the anticipated growth that will come from the Exposition Line and Gold Line Extension without displacing current residents and businesses.
For the first time we are also beginning to talk about how we can incorporate tools to improve the watershed into these plans. Watershed issues have not typically migrated into the land use conversation in the past. There is an incredible amount of knowledge and expertise amongst the environmental community that we as planners have not historically tapped into. And, unfortunately, while many fabulous watershed plans have been developed by various non-profit groups, the recommendations and policies have not trickled down into the community plans. But, again, it’s a new day and the conversations are beginning. The new community plans can, for example, identify places that should be preserved as areas to increase stormwater infiltration to replenish our aquifers. So we’ll be working with our partners in Public Works and Water and Power to identify the best places to replenish the aquifer and daylight streams to support an improved habitat.
When you came in to your position at the city a year ago, what job description were you given?
I was assigned to work in the newly-created River Unit within the Citywide Division. This provided a wonderful opportunity for the Department to collaborate with the Bureau of Engineering on the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (LARRMP). The Master Plan sets forth a 20–50 year vision of how the river could be transformed from an ugly concrete flood channel into a river greenway. Over time, the river, which runs for 32 miles through the city, will provide jogging, bicycling and walking paths, recreational parks and open space, as well as areas of eco-system restoration.
The final plan was released a few weeks ago and was approved by the City Council on May 8. The River Unit will next start working on developing two plans to implement some of the goals of the master plan. The first will be a new River Improvement Overlay (RIO) District. We heard a lot from the community about the need for new development along the river to be more focused towards the river and for the need to provide visual and physical connections to and from the neighborhoods to the river.
The RIO will provide a menu of design standards for developments to select from that will establish a more positive interface between new buildings, the river and the streets within the river district. Our second effort will be a specific plan for the Cornfield, Chinatown and Arroyo Seco area, which was identified as one of the opportunity areas in the River Master Plan. We have applied to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) to have this plan considered for their new pilot LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) program.
When you consider green options, both with smart growth and green buildings, what other cities provide benchmarks? We know that Riverside, Santa Monica, and cities in Northern California believe that they’re on the cutting edge. To whom does the city of L.A. look for a leader in smart growth and green building?
We’ve been looking a lot at Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. All three of those cities offer excellent models. An interesting aspect of those models is the importance they have all placed on education and outreach in order to share with the community the financial, environmental, and health-related benefits of sustainable practices.
Last month Emily Gabel Luddy told The Planing Report about the Planning Department’s Urban Design Studio. What is the significance of that studio, and how does it relate to the green agenda?
The two are joined at the hip. Gail Goldberg recognized that the establishment of good urban design principles was imperative to the promotion of the city as a pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly city, which is at the heart of smart growth and a green agenda. As we design our streets and buildings to encourage walking and bicycling more, and driving less, we can begin to re-imagine Los Angeles as a sustainable and green place.