Why track this budgeting process?

The Planning Department offices are a long way from our community, but their services touch every single land-use issue or question in Westchester-Playa. Therefore, any cuts to the Planning’s budget directly degrades the level of services they provide our community. Potentially, Planning budget cuts can impact local home remodels, new affordable housing development and/or our local Community Plan Update (CPU) process.

Where things stand as of 5/23/25

Preparation of a balanced 2025-2026 budget for the City of Los Angeles has raised many concerns. In particular, the Planning Department was initially asked to take on an extra burden regarding staff and service cuts.

In this post, we’re providing a timeline of budget modification events through 5/23/25, including key data points and take-aways from Planning’s first draft of cuts. We will continue to post to our FYI channel as updates come in.

You can also keep an eye on the Council file (CF-25-0600) that tracks Budget Hearing actions and Community Impact Statements.

April 21, 2025 – The Mayor releases a draft of City-wide budget cuts. Balancing the City’s budget = cutting 1647 staff positions.

The announcement detail that caught BaBWP.org’s attention:

• Planning Dept workforce = 1.6% of total City workforce
• Planning Dept target cuts = 7.2% of total City workforce reduction of 1600+ positions.

May 2, 2025 – Planning Department director Vince Bertoni and executive staff members present to the City Counsel Budget Committee.

To see Bertoni’s presentation and listen in on the Committee’s  discussion, advance to time stamp 3 hours 15 minutes in the video record.

Bertoni’s Presentation highlights > the implications of significant staffing cuts

The proposed cuts to Planning’s budget would result in eliminating 35 existing staff positions and 25% of Planning’s field positions, plus all unfilled staff positions. Projected Impact:

• 1 in 4 current Planning employees being laid off.
• Eliminates some positions which actually generate revenue for Planning via fees.
• Reduces service levels across all of Planning
• Delays housing development.
• Puts Community Plan Update and Specific Plan Amendment projects on hold. (Including Westchester-Playa’s CPU)
• Slows or stops the work required to encode recently approved Community Plan Updates (DTLA, Boyle Heights, Hollywood, Eastside)
• Deep cuts in the team that delivers mapping and other Planning technology, which also slows down implementation of new zoning and other map-based Planning functions.
• Exposure to potentially significant (costly) liabilities regarding the timely enactment of new State laws and regulations.
• The elimination of Planning’s Environmental Justice unit.
• Elimination of the Planning unit responsible for “Nuisance Abatement” (e.g., land use conditions being legally violated, such as liquor stores open later than permitted, unlawful activity in motels, etc.)
• Large cuts to small business-related permitting unit: al fresco dining & beverage permits.

Committee Member requests for Planning studies

As the hearing participants grappled with the reality of Planning budget cuts, they requested a number of study memos from Bertoni’s team on key issues, recapped here to provide a sense of what concerns City Council Members have about these cuts.

• Budget study that plays with adding back in various categories of staff position, specifically i
  • Revenue-generating positions
  • Community Plan Update-related staff positions
  • GIS and graphics positions
  • Field admin and support positions that having special funding
  • Positions most closely related to protecting the City from legal liabilities.
• Review what fees exist now and if any can reasonably be increased.
• Planning Department processes that might be successfully migrated over to Building and Safety.
• Partial list of Specific Budget Study Memo requests:
  • Recommendations for restoring the East San Fernando Valley Transit Neighborhood Plan
  • Impact on plan review related to rebuilding from recent fires.
  • Which Community Plan Updates are so far along it would be too costly to stop now.
  • Impact on Local Coastal Plan pending in Venice.
  • Impacts if Environmental Justice program is eliminated (hazards not addressed, etc.)
  • Impact cuts will have specifically on the most vulnerable, low income communities and communities of color.
  • Study regarding implementation of AB-1033 plus recommendations on shortening time-to-approval for ADUs.
  • Impact on Historic Preservation Overlay Planning currently under way.

May 16, 2025 – Council File 25-0600 records the City’s Chief Legislative Analyst’s Report on Proposed Cuts

Key recommendations included this note restoring Planning staff positions:

May 16, 2025 – BaBWP received confirmation from CD11 that our local Community Plan Update process will be put on hold.

May 17, 2025 – The City’s Budget Committee votes to lower the staff cut counts to a target total of 650 positions (LA Times article).

As a result, Planning is able to restore more than 100 of their original 115 staff layoffs.

May 23, 2025 – Precise impact of budget discussion on the Westchester-Playa Community Plan Update is a little unclear.

Things are changing practically in real time. Therefore, the above message from CD11’s planning staffer Sean Silva may change, and resources to support our CPU may come back online in some form. As soon as we learn anything new, we’ll update our FYI news posts.