RESTUDY AND UPDATE OF BOYLE HEIGHTS COMMUNITY PLAN

Motion - The historic community of Boyle Heights is the focal point of considerable public infrastructure activity. The Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension light rail project from Union Station to East Los Angeles will beginning operations through Boyle Heights by 2009, with four stations in the community. Hollenbeck Police Station is being rebuilt. The Los Angeles Unified School District is building a new high school, with additional schools to follow. Pecan Park is slated for modernization. The First Street bridge over the Los Angeles River is being widened. Additionally, White Memorial Hospital is building new medical facilities. This construction work represents more than $1 billion in investment in Boyle Heights and, not surprisingly, it is attracting the interest of private developers and businesses. There already are proposals for new projects in the community, including major mixed-use projects at Cesar Chavez Street and Soto Avenue, and Soto Avenue and Olympic Boulevard. There is also interest along First Street, where the light rail will run. Additionally, led by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles' "HOPE VI" project to re-make the Pico-Aliso housing project, there is new housing activity in the community. The Community Redevelopment Agency has created the Adelante Eastside Redevelopment Project Area to encourage revitalization. And the City has formed the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Development Cabinet, a multi-departmental, multi-agency group that is exploring how to maximize the benefit to the community that can stem from all the activity. The Boyle Heights Community Plan (BHCP) was last updated in 1998, when the plan text and map were revised. Zone changes to ensure consistency were recommended but never studied or implemented. And now, with the City Planning Department having revamped its Community Plan format, the BHCP is substantially out of date both technically and conceptually. A restudy of the BHCP, with full community involvement, is long overdue. THEREFORE MOVE that the City Council initiate a thorough restudy and update of the Boyle Heights Community Plan, including associated zone changes and full consideration of all available implementation processes and tools, and that the Department of City Planning undertake this work at the earliest possible opportunity. OLD COUNCIL FILES 95-1302, 95-1302-S1, 98-0252 and 98-0252-S1

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