Phasing Plan Adopted for SurveyLA's Citywide Rollout

With the pilot surveys now well underway for SurveyLA, the Los Angeles Historic Resources Survey Project, the Office of Historic Resources (OHR) has developed a phasing plan for the project's rollout of the field surveys throughout the city, beginning later this year.  The phasing plan was approved by SurveyLA's Survey Project Advisory Committee in January 2009 and by the Cultural Heritage Commission at its February 19, 2009 meeting.

The OHR is proposing to phase SurveyLA's work in generally the same sequence being used for the Department of City Planning's preparation of New Community Plans. The 35 Community Plans serve as the Land Use Element of the City's General Plan and guide and focus new development and investment in all Los Angeles communities.

The New Community Plans, 12 of which are already in development, will provide Los Angeles communities with more specific, detailed guidance on potential land uses. The survey data in each Plan Area can help ensure that changes proposed to these communities will not adversely affect historic resources.  Surveys will also identify historic resources that may offer opportunities for adaptive reuse and economic reinvestment.

Phasing SurveyLA in parallel with the New Community Plan program will promote the OHR's key goal to integrate historic preservation more fully into the City's planning processes.  It also offers key opportunities to coordinate the SurveyLA public outreach and participation programs with New Community Plan outreach activities.

Under the City's grant agreement with the J. Paul Getty Trust, SurveyLA's field surveys in the project's "Implementation Phase" are to be conducted over three years.

In Year 1 (Fall 2009 to Fall 2010), the SurveyLA work program will include 11 Community Plan areas:

Palms-Mar Vista-Del Rey, West Los Angeles, San Pedro, Harbor Gateway, South Los Angeles, Southeast Los Angeles, Central City North, Sunland-Tujunga-Shadow Hills-Lakeview Terrace-East La Tuna Canyon, West Adams-Baldwin Hills-Leimert, San Pedro, and Hollywood.

Year 2 survey activities will focus significantly on the San Fernando Valley and several Westside communities, along with Silver Lake, which has never been surveyed and has a rich architectural legacy:

Sherman Oaks-Studio City-Toluca Lake-Cahuenga Pass, North Hollywood-Valley Village, Mission Hills-Panorama City-North Hills, Arleta-Pacoima, Canoga Park-West Hills-Winnetka-Woodland Hills, Encino-Tarzana, Brentwood-Pacific Palisades, Bel Air-Beverly Crest, Westchester-Playa del Rey, Westlake, and Silver Lake-Echo Park-Elysian Valley.

Year 3 will cover the remaining areas of the city, including the large Northeast and Wilshire Plan Areas along with a survey of industrial properties in all Plan Areas:

Northeast Los Angeles, Venice, Westwood, Sun Valley-La Tuna Canyon, Van Nuys-North Sherman Oaks, Chatsworth-Porter Ranch, Northridge, Reseda-West Van Nuys, Granada Hills-Knollwood, Sylmar, Wilshire, LAX, and Industrial Properties in all Community Plan Areas.

The SurveyLA pilot surveys are progressing on time and within budget, covering the community of Boyle Heights, portions of Pico Boulevard (between Crenshaw and the 110 Freeway) and Vermont Avenue (between Martin Luther King Blvd. and Manchester Blvd.), and two sub-areas of the San Fernando Valley north of the 101 Freeway.  The pilot survey work has enabled the SurveyLA team to refine the project's methodology, software and hardware, public participation strategies and consistency in decisionmaking before the survey work begins throughout the entire city.

This link provides a PDF of the SurveyLA Phasing Plan map [2.17MB]