For years, many people have been working to create a network of wildlife corridors in the LA area that could have profound implications for our wildlife, our biodiversity, and our experience of the city.

Councilmember Koretz introduced the wildlife ordinance motion (see Council File 14-0518) in 2014 (!!!!!!). (The draft ordinance is not in the council file yet because it is still a draft.)

A related motion, the Regionwide Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Plan (Council File 22-0483—Raman et al.), passed earlier this year.

We were really hoping to get the ordinance to the finish line before Koretz's term ended, but during a July 2022 public hearing, many property owners in the area that will serve as the pilot (in the Santa Monica Mountains) voiced their opposition to the April 2022 draft ordinance (which we later voted to support). In October 2022, the Department of City Planning released a revised (and substantially weakened) draft wildlife ordinance. You can see the summary of the changes here. 

Draft Wildlife Ordinance April 2022
Revised Draft Wildlife Ordinance Public Release April 2022
Revised Draft Wildlife Ordinance Fact Sheet

Draft Wildlife Ordinance October 2022
Revised Draft Wildlife Ordinance Public Release October 2022
Summary and Changes

Our letter in reaction to this latest and weakened draft is here.

Other reactions are here:
www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-11-07/los-angeles-wildlife-district-ordinance
Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife letter
multiple organizations' letter

The City Planning Commission (CPC) discussed the October revision on December 8.

According to City Planning, the commission:

Approved and Recommended that the City Council adopt the Proposed Ordinance to
amend Sections 12.03, 12.04, 12.32, 13.21, 13.22, and 16.05 of the Los Angeles Municipal
Code to establish a Wildlife Supplemental Use District, as modified by the City Planning
Commission (Exhibit A) as follows:
● Allow up to 1,000 square feet of basement area to be exempted from Residential Floor
Area calculations, as long as the floor to floor height of the basement does not exceed
ten (10) feet.
● Revise the threshold for Site Plan Review to: any Project in a Wildlife District that creates
or results in 6,000 square feet or more of Residential Floor Area.

The commission's letter of determination is here.

 Our allies had asked that the commission pass the ordinance with amendments  (see the reactions above), which, by and large, were not adopted. The next step is for it to go to city council, which can also amend it.  

It is not too late to submit a CIS! A great one is from the PICO NC, here. 

 

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Good news! 

On Tuesday, June 20 at 2 pm, a new and improved proposed wildlife ordinance (see this letter from Councilmembers Raman and Yaroslavsky and City Planning's response) will be heard in the PLUM committee at City Hall. They address several of our concerns (noted here).
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Public comment will likely be heard first (and only in-person!); we anticipate that everyone will have one minute to speak.
You can also submit a public comment to the council file here.
Please come and/or submit a comment online, and please spread the word to your respective neighborhood councils, green committees, and beyond! We really want to have a presence, as we were OUT-ORGANIZED last July by the opposition, who showed up in the hundreds to a Zoom meeting and set this effort back by a year.
You can see suggested talking points here.
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UPDATE June 21—A STRONG ORDINANCE PASSED THE PLUM COMMITTEE!
It still needs to be voted on by the entire city council, and before that happens, they need the final ordinance. See this letter to the City Attorney.
In case you're wondering who is behind the opposition and what they are saying (much of which is NOT what City Planning, who wrote the ordinance, is telling us), check out these sites:
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Notice any thread through all of them?
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UPDATE DECEMBER 2, 2024
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At long last, a draft ordinance has been submitted to the council file! And we've heard from City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto's office that the reason for her loooong delay in getting this ordinance to us is a desire to avoid triggering builder's remedy. If the Wildlife Ordinance passes on its own, it will be considered by the State as downzoning, and the State would put us into Builders' remedy—allowing developers to do whatever they want. Apparently Feldstein Soto was planning to pair the passage of the Wildlife Ordinance with the DTLA Community Plan, which upzones enough property so that taken together with the Wildlife Ordinance, there would be no downzoning. The two must pass City Council on the same agenda, and we must ask Marqueece Harris-Dawson as Council President to agendize these that way.
Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky's office held a meeting about the ordinance. You can see a synopsis of the meeting here from the Bel Air-Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council.

 

UPDATE DECEMBER 4, 2024

Apparently the above update was out of date—because we now have larger problems. Stay tuned!

 

updated December 4, 2024