As part of the City of Los Angeles’ comprehensive effort to revise its Planning and Zoning Code, which has not been done since 1946, and to streamline the development process to make it more clear, the City recently approved two significant ordinances.

The first, commonly referred to as the “Multiple Approvals Ordinance,” simplifies the process for projects that require approvals from different bodies (such as the Director of Planning, Zoning Administrator, Planning Commission) by permitting all applications to be filed and heard concurrently; the expiration period for all multiple approvals will also occur at the same time. This is a tremendous benefit for complex projects that require a variety of approvals (zone changes, specific plan amendments, conditional use permits, variances), which have had to deal with conflicting processes, differing expiration periods, and sometimes inconsistent coordination between the various divisions within the Planning Department. The ordinance also allows, upon request to the Planning Director, extensions for all entitlement approvals with effective dates between July 15, 2005, and December 31, 2010. For projects stopped or slowed by the economic downturn that had entitlements at risk of expiring, this provision eliminates the need to undergo a full costly and time-consuming re-approval process that could take several additional years.