The Los Angeles Department of City Planning is soliciting public comments and suggestions regarding its plans to define guidelines for future development on Lincoln Boulevard, including changes to signage or landscaping as well as new construction. Planning Department representatives presented the discussion draft of the Proposed Lincoln Boulevard Community Design Overlay (CDO) District on Thursday evening, March 22, in a meeting room at the Boys and Girls Club in Venice. April 9 is the deadline for public comment.
The CDO process is intended “to provide design guidance and direction to enhance the visual identity, and to improve the walkability and the appearance of the Lincoln corridor,” according to the Planning Department. Specifically, compliance with adopted guidelines would be required for the “erection, construction, addition to, or exterior alterations to, any building . . . , including wall signs, window signs, canopies/awnings, façade alterations, the addition of roof equipment, and significant landscaping changes.”
The proposal covers all property on Lincoln from the Santa Monica/Los Angeles city limits on the north to the Marina Freeway on the south. As a general rule, any property modifications that require the issuance of a building permit (excluding certain projects relating solely to interior work) would also be reviewed by the Director of Planning for compliance with the CDO guidelines before the necessary building permit was issued.
The discussion draft distributed March 22 says, “The purpose of the Lincoln CDO is to ensure that the development along Lincoln Boulevard reflects the overall vision of a cohesive, pedestrian-friendly and vibrant commercial and residential boulevard.” In order to accomplish this, the draft proposal articulates 22 “guidelines,” and each guideline is supported by more specific “standards,” there being 76 standards in all.
For example, Guideline No. 3 governing “ground-floor façade articulation” seeks to “heighten visual interest and enhance pedestrian orientation . . .” The specific standards under this guideline provide, among other things, that (a) “at least 70 percent of the building façade at ground level shall consist of doors and windows” and “a minimum of 70 percent of window bases on a premise shall be set three feet or lower on the façade, and (b) “for every 25 horizontal feet of building façade, the project shall employ one or more of the following vertical elements: columns, pilasters, indentations, storefront bays, vertical landscaping.”
Other guidelines address subjects including setbacks, entrances, awnings and canopies, fencing and walls, signage and historic resources, and each guideline has a set of specific standards.
Copies of the 26-page discussion draft are available from Shana M. Bonstin, Community Planning Bureau, Los Angeles Department of City Planning, 200 N. Spring Street, Room 621, Los Angeles 90012, 213-978-1207. April 9 is the deadline for public comments on the draft proposal; comments should be directed to Ms. Bonstin or to one of Councilmember Rosendahl’s offices.
