Resolved

L.A. Mayor’s 2025-26 Proposed Budget

Resolved

A proposed budget would have made drastic cuts to the Office of Historic Resources.

About This Issue

Faced with a nearly $1 billion budget gap, the Mayor released a proposed 2025-26 budget that proposes 1,647 layoffs citywide. Among the Departments hit hardest by cuts would have been the City Planning and the Office of Historic Resources. General cuts to the Department of City Planning would strain housing production, legacy businesses, and homeowners citywide and will increase the time need to get permits or get projects approved. Although City Planning is only 1.6% of the City’s total workforce, the Department accounted for 7.2% of the proposed layoffs. Many of these positions are critical to the economic development of the city. Without them it will be increasingly more difficult to start a business, renovate a home, or build new infill housing.

Our Position

Any cuts to the Office of Historic Resources will strain the City’s capacity to enforce protections for historic resources and will lead to delays for homeowners, small businesses and developers. In the budget proposal, OHR positions would have been cut by nearly a third from 17 positions to just 12. These cuts included the loss of 3 HPOZ planners, which would require further consolidation of HPOZ boards, less frequent meetings, and more reviews assigned to staff. Also included in the cuts would be the elimination of the only staff person working to update HistoricPlacesLA, marking the end of the City’s 15+ year investment with the Getty in SurveyLA.

The Conservancy called for the restoration of 5 filled positions from the Office of Historic Resources to ensure critical functions of the office can be maintained while still deleting two unfilled positions.

Please read the letter submitted by the Conservancy to learn more about our position.

How You Can Help

How You Can Help

The positions originally slated for layoffs have been restored in the latest revised budget, which was adopted by the City Council on May 15, 2025.

Thank you to all supporters who wrote or called in in support of the Office of Historic Resources.

 

Contact Info for Budget and Finance Committee Members

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, Chair – CD5
Email: Councilmember.Yaroslavsky@lacity.org
Phone: (213) 473-7005

Councilmember Bob Blumenfield – CD3
Email: councilmember.blumenfield@lacity.org
Phone: (213) 473-7003

Councilmember Heather Hutt – CD10
Email: heather.hutt@lacity.org
Phone: (213) 473-7010

Councilmember Tim McOsker – CD15
Email: councilmember.mcosker@lacity.org
Phone: (213) 473-7015

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez – CD1
Email: councilmember.hernandez@lacity.org
Phone: (213) 473-7001

Timeline