The Westside Area Plan includes the unincorporated areas of  Ladera Heights, View Park – Windsor Hills, Franklin Canyon, West LA Sawtelle VA, West Fox Hills, Marina del Rey, and Gilmore Island. The County’s Area Plans are similar to the Community Plans that the City of LA – both clarify elements of the General Plan and provide more specific guidance on land use, transportation and open space. For LA County, the Area Plan updates are also important to maintaining Housing Element compliance, as the County must plan for more than 90,000 new units of housing.

As part of the Area Plan update, a Historic Context Statement was prepared by Historic Resources Group (HRG). This long-overdue guiding document provides the basis for evaluating future historic resources in the area. The Westside Area Plan also includes a Historic Preservation Element, which makes some recommendations on how to enhance preservation goals. Both of these are important first steps, but a full survey and better safeguards for historic resources are still needed.

To learn more about the Westside Area Plan, please visit https://planning.lacounty.gov/long-range-planning/westside-area-plan/

The draft Westside Area Plan generally responds to community concerns and targets new growth along underutilized commercial corridors, protecting neighborhoods from redevelopment. In some cases, multifamily areas were downzoned to encourage the preservation of Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH).

Although the majority of proposed changes do not appear problematic from a preservation perspective, there are two sites mentioned in the historic context statement that are located in and slated for opportunity sites and appear at risk. They are:

• University Christian Church, 5831 W. Centinela Avenue, designed by Robert D’Arcy Bolling, Deasy & Bolling Architects, built 1965
• “Jet Inn Motel,” 4542 W. Slauson Avenue, built 1959

Both of these structures appear threatened by upzoning, which will place greater pressure on their potential redevelopment. Although they have yet to be formally surveyed, both appear to be eligible for historic designation at least at the local level.

The Conservancy has requested that any upzoning on the church site be limited only the the surface parking lot, to ensure future protection of the church. We have also asked that the current zoning of the Jet Inn be maintained and that and alternative site or sites be identified on the Slauson corridor that might be better candidates for redevelopment.

We also encouraged the Department of Regional Planning and Board of Supervisors to accelerate the timeline to complete a historic survey of Ladera Heights and Windsor Hills, which was included Implementation Programs of the Area Plan. We believe this is a crucial step to protecting neighborhoods that have recently experienced gentrification and speculation, and is the logical next step after completion of the historic context statement.

To read our full comments submitted to the to the Department of Regional Planning, click here.