Requiem for a growth machine: Homeowner preeminence in 1980s Los Angeles

Journal of Planning History

Volumn 11, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 124-140

  Whittemore, Andrew H ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

Growth machine; Los Angeles; Zoning

Indexed keywords

HOMEOWNER; HOUSING POLICY; PLANNING HISTORY; PRICE DETERMINATION; REFORM PROCESS; RENT SEEKING; SOCIOECONOMIC CONDITIONS; URBAN GROWTH; URBAN HISTORY; URBAN PLANNING; ZONING POLICY;

CALIFORNIA; LOS ANGELES [CALIFORNIA]; UNITED STATES;

EID: 84860126435     PISSN: 15385132     EISSN: 15526585     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/1538513211417344     Document Type: Article

References (154)

1. Harvey Molotch, "The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place," The American Journal of Sociology 82, no. 2 (1976): 309-332.
2. Harvey Molotch, "The City as a Growth Machine: Toward a Political Economy of Place," The American Journal of Sociology 82, no. 2 (1976): 318-319.
3. Earl Finkler, Frank Popper, and William Toner, Urban Nongrowth: City Planning for People. (New York: Praeger, 1976), 213.
4. Sidney Plotkin, Keep Out: the Struggle for Local Land Use Control (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).
5. Frank Popper, Politics of Land Use Reform (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981).
6. Clarence Stone, "Urban Regimes and the Capacity to Govern: A Political Economy Approach," Journal of Urban Affairs 15, no. 1 (1993): 1-28.
7. Tim Brindley, Yvonne Rydin, and Gerry Stoker, Remaking Planning: The Politics of Urban Change (New York: Routledge, 1996).
8. John R. Logan and Harvey Molotch, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 3.
9. Ronald K. Vogel and Bert E. Swanson, "The Growth Machine versus the Antigrowth Coalition: The Battle for our Communities," Urban Affairs Review 25, no. 1 (1989): 63-85.
10. John R. Logan and Min Zhou, "Do Suburban Growth Controls Control Growth?" American Sociological Review 54, no. 3 (1989): 461-471.
11. Todd Donovan and Max Neiman, "Citizen Mobilization and the Adoption of Local Growth Control," The Western Political Quarterly 45, no. 3 (1992): 651-675.
12. Mark Schneider and Paul Teske, "The Antigrowth Entrepreneur: Challenging the 'Equilibrium' of the Growth Machine," Journal of Politics 55, no. 3 (1993): 720-736.
13. T. N. Clark and E. G. Goetz, "The Antigrowth Machine: Can City Governments Control, Limit, orManage Growth?" in Urban Innovation, ed. T. N. Clark (Thousand Oaks,CA:SAGE, 1994), 105-145.
14. Jerrell Richer, "Explaining the Vote for Slow Growth," Public Choice 82 (1995): 207-223.
15. Schneider and Teske (1993), 724.
16. Mark Baldassare and William Protash, "Growth Controls, Population Growth, and Community Satisfaction," American Sociological Review 47 (June 1982): 339-346.
17. Vogel and Swanson (1989), 72.
18. Finkler, Popper, and Toner (1976), 213.
19. This was the argument presented in the ruling on Southern Burlington County N.A.A.C.P. v. Mount Laurel Township 67 N.J. 151 (1975). Justice Hall opined: "It is plain beyond dispute that proper provision for adequatehousing of all categories of people is certainly an absolute essential in promotion of the general welfare required in all local land use regulation.
20. Further the universal and constant need for such housing is so important and of such broad public interest that the general welfare which developing municipalities like Mount Laurel must consider extends beyond their boundaries and cannot be parochially confined to the claimed good of the particular municipality."
21. William Fulton, The Reluctant Metropolis: the Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
22. The Planning Commission's Annual Report of 1928 reported that 5.8 percent of the city's land was used for commercial purposes while 13.4 percent was zoned for commercial purposes, see Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Annual Report 1927-1928, 6, in Los Angeles City Archives (LACA); the totalvaluation of Los Angeles County matched Chicago's Cook County by 1929,
23. "Record in Property Values" Southern California Business 8, no. 4 (1929): 30.
24. In regard to the quality of life, the Los Angeles Times opined that the prospect of so much eventual traffic generating commercial development was damaging to abutting residential communities and driving homeowners to other jurisdictions,
25. "Too Much Business Zoning," Los Angeles Times, October 10, 1928.
26. The Los Angeles Realty Board concluded that the value of commercial land was not sustainable and based on an artificial attraction, ""A Strange Psychology not Founded Upon Reason,"
27. George H. Coffin Jr., "Appraising Property Zoned for Business," Journal of the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers 3, no.1 (1934): 29-33.
28. In the most notorious instance, a county grand jury in 1966 indicted developer Bryan Gibson on charges of grand theft and conspiracy to pay 51,000 dollars in bribes over a conditional use permit for nine-hundred units in a townhouse style Planned Development in the San Fernando Valley's Chatsworth district.
29. Einstoss, Ron. "Tighter Zoning Control Needed, Yorty tells Jury," Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1966.
30. Fred E. Case and James Gilles, "Some Aspects of Land Planning: the San Fernando Valley Case," The Appraisal Journal 23, no. 1 (1955): 14-41.
31. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Annual Report (1954-1955), 20.
32. Richard F. Babcock, The Zoning Game (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966), 120.
33. Such virtues are implied by a corresponding literature, originating in the same period, on antigrowth regimes and their impact on housing prices and urban form,
34. Franklin J. James Jr., and Oliver Duane Windsor, "Fiscal Zoning, Fiscal Reform, and Exclusionary Land Use Controls," Journal of the American Planning Association 42, no. 2 (1976): 130-141.
35. Robert C. Ellickson, "Suburban Growth Controls: An Economic and Legal Analysis," Yale Law Review 86, no. 3 (1977): 385-511.
36. F Logan and F Molotch (1987), 3.
37. Friends of Mammoth v. Board of Supervisors 8 Cal. 3d 247 (1972).
38. Small and Knust, Inc. California Local Government and CEQA, 1979: A Report Submitted to the Assembly Committee on Rules (San Diego: Small and Knust, 1980), 46.
39. Benjamin F. Bobo, "The Effects of Land Use Controls on Low Income and Minority Groups: Court Actions and Economic Implications," in No Land is an Island: Individual Rights and Government Control of Land Use, 93-99 (San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies, 1975), 99.
40. Paul Shigley, "California Struggles with its Legal Yoke," in Planning 76, no. 4 (2010): 12-15.
41. Los Angeles (City) Department of City Planning, "Role of Planning," in Annual Report (1969-1970), n.p.
42. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning, Density Adjustment Study: An Examination of Multiple Residential Zoning in the City of Los Angeles (May 1972), 55.
43. Estimates of the size of the zoning rollback varied based on estimates of the city's zoning capacity. This figure of 7.5 million was produced.
44. Ray Hebert, "City Planners Seek Population Growth Control by Zoning," Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1970.
45. John Pastier wrote in """Rollback' of Zoning Capacity a Toehold for Good Planning," Los Angeles Times, December 20, 1970, that there was a capacity of 10 million; the 1972 Department of City Planning estimated that the city was zoned for 9.9 million, see Los Angeles (City) Department of City Planning, Density Adjustment Study (May 1972), i.
46. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Density Adjustment Study (May 1972), 31; ""R3" allows one dwelling unit per 800 square feet of lot area, ""R4" one dwelling unit per 400 square feet of lot area, and ""R5" one dwelling unit per 200 square feet of lot area.
47. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning, Density Adjustment Study (May 1972), 55.
48. Regarding workshop "Crisis 1972,"
49. "Zoning is Subject of Two-Day Forum," Los Angeles Times, August 20, 1972.
50. "Role of Planning," in Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Annual Report 1969-1970, n.p.
51. Ray Hebert, "City Planners Seek Population Growth Control by Zoning," Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1970.
52. Regional Planning Commission 1977, Alternative Directions for Los Angeles County: 2.
53. Irv Burleigh, "Sherman Oaks-Studio City Plan Calls for Cutback in Apartment Zoning," Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1970.
54. Los Angeles (City) Department of City Planning, ""Staff Review of Los Angeles County Preliminary General Plan" for April 6, 1978, Council File 76-4342 (Box B-753 LACA).
55. The County devised its land use strategy for a 2000 countywide population of 7.8 million. The actual 2000 population of the county was over 9.5 million, see Los Angeles (County), Regional Planning Commission, Los Angeles County Proposed General Plan: Summary General Plan and Environmental Impact Report (1979), I-14.
56. AB 1301 (McCarthy 1971).
57. Los Angeles (City), Intergovernmental Relations Committee, ""Report," May 19, 1978, Council File 77-2800-S14 (Box B-826 LACA).
58. Los Angeles (City) Department of City Planning ""Staff Report" on Residential Density zones dated August 8, 1974, in Council File 117977-S2 (Box A-1829 LACA).
59. Kevin Roderick, "L.A. Building Ban Weighed to Avert Zoning Law Suits," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1984.
60. Kevin Roderick, "L.A. Building Ban Weighed to Avert Zoning Law Suits," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1984.
61. AB 283 (Thomas 1978).
62. The City Planning Department made it customary to engage the local community in zoning affairs as early as the 1920s. However, the modern custom of community engagement was not solidified until the 1969 Charter Reforms, when the city was divided into thirty-five Community Planning Areas and Citizen Advisory Committees became customary.
63. Los Angeles, (City) Department of City Planning Annual Report (1971-1972), 3.
64. Los Angeles (City), City Council ""Motion," May 11, 1978 and Los Angeles (City), State County and Federal Affairs Committee, ""Report," August 11, 1977, in Council File 77-2800-S14 (Box B-826 LACA).
65. Calvin Hamilton to the Planning and Environment Committee of City Council, November 29, 1978, in Council File 77-2800-S14 (Box B-826 LACA).
66. Los Angeles (City), Planning and Environment Committee, ""Recommendation," February 7, 1979, in Council File 77-2800-S14 (Box B-826 LACA); City of Los Angeles v. State of California 138 al.App.3d 526 (1979).
67. Mark A. Stein, "Residents Assail Zoning Proposal," Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1981.
68. Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 155079 adopted March 31, 1981, Council File 77-2800-S14A (Box B-826 LACA).
69. Los Angeles (City), City Council "Motion" November 17, 1981, Council File 81-5656 (Box C-119 LACA).
70. Los Angeles (City), Council Files 81-5656 and 81-5656-S3 (Box C-119 LACA); Ordinance 156960 July 13, 1982.
71. According to Kevin Roderick in "L. A. Building Ban Weighed to Avert Zoning Law Suits," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1984, only 25 percent of the city's inconsistently zoned parcels were addressed by the 1982 deadline.
72. Los Angeles (City), City Council, "Motion," January 12, 1983, in Council File 83-0003-S19 (Box C-0667 LACA).
73. Kevin Roderick, ""L. A. Building Ban Weighed to Avert Zoning Law Suits," Los Angeles Times, October 27, 1984.
74. Regarding lawsuits stemming from AB 283, see Council Files 82-0841 (Box C-0842 LACA) and 82-1871 (Box C-0519 LACA).
75. Los Angeles (City) Ordinance 156337 adopted January 29, 1982, a development moratorium in the San Pedro Community Plan area pending Zoning Consistency; Los Angeles (City) Ordinance 158788 adopted March 14, 1984, a development moratorium in the Arleta-Pacoima Community Plan area pending Zoning Consistency; Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 158506 adopted November 18, 1983, a development moratorium in the West Los Angeles Community Plan area pending Zoning Consistency.
76. Los Angeles (City) Ordinance 159579 adopted December 14, 1984, a development moratorium in the Silver Lake-Echo Park Community Plan area pending Zoning Consistency; Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 163420 April 13, 1988, a development moratorium in the Wilmington-Harbor City Community Plan area pending Zoning Consistency.
77. "Hamilton Urges Cut in Building to Meet Zoning Law," Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1984.
78. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Annual Report (1984-1985), 16.
79. Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 159748 adopted March 20, 1985.
80. Frank Clifford, "L. A. Votes to Enact Zoning General Plan," Los Angeles Times, April 3, 1985.
81. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Annual Report (1983-1984), 10.
82. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning Annual Report (1984-1985), 16.
83. "Hamilton Urges Cut in Building to Meet Zoning Law," Los Angeles Times, November 14, 1984. 16.
84. Regarding making Q Conditions permanent, see Los Angeles (City), Council File 83-0636 (Box C-683 LACA) and Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 158206, adopted August 3, 1983; for examples of area-wide rezoning as part of the Zoning Consistency Program, see Los Angeles (City), Council File 86-2003 (Box C-1382 LACA) and Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 163915 adopted July 26, 1988, on the rezoning of the Northridge Community Plan area in the Valley pursuant to the General Plan Zoning Consistency Program.
85. Los Angeles (City), Council File 88-1634 (Box C-2134 LACA) and Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 167449 adopted December 3, 1991, on the rezoning of the Southeast Los Angeles Community Plan area pursuant to the General Plan Zoning Consistency Program; see Los Angeles (City) Council File 88-0766 (Box C- 2107 LACA) and Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 165511, adopted February 9, 1990, on the rezoning of the Arleta-Pacoima Community Plan area pursuant to the General Plan Zoning Consistency Program.
86. Los Angeles (City), Council File 88-0727 (Box C-2105 LACA) and Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 165108 adopted August 8, 1989, on the rezoning of the North Hollywood Community Plan area pursuant to the General Plan Zoning Consistency Program; see Los Angeles (City), Council File 87-0835 (Box C-1703 LACA) and Los Angeles (City) Ordinance 164855 adopted May 10, 1989, on the rezoning of the Central City North Community Plan area pursuant to the General Plan Zoning Consistency Program.
87. "Council Tentatively Adopts Plan to Slow Building," Los Angeles Times, January 24, 1985.
88. The size of this majority was not mentioned in the article.
89. Los Angeles (City) Department of City Planning, "Southeast Los Angeles Population Capacity Comparison," 10, in Council File 88-1634 attachment II (Box C-2134 LACA).
90. Trudy Farr to Aram Elmassian received May 12, 1988, in Council File 88-0727 (Box C-2105 LACA). 64. Isadora D. Earl to Los Angeles (City), City Council Planning and Environment Committee, May 9, 1988, in Council File 88-0727 (Box C-2105 LACA).
91. Los Angeles (City) Planning and Environment Committee, ""Report," adopted June 15, 1988, in Council File 88-0727, Part 2 of 2 (Box C-2105 LACA).
92. Josh Getlin, "City's Zoning Survey to Begin in Van Nuys," Los Angeles Times, November 2, 1980.
93. On the conflict between housing production and the Zoning Consistency Program, see Los Angeles (City) Council File 87-0124 (Box C-1680 LACA); on the conflict between business development and the Zoning Consistency Program, see Los Angeles (City) Council File 85-1647 (Box C-1149 LACA).
94. David Ferrell, "Planners OK Zoning Law Limiting City Population," Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1985.
95. The General Plan Housing Element of 1994 estimated that the General Plan Zoning Consistency Program reduced the city's housing capacity by 28 percent, from 3,022,717 to 2,169,056 units, see Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning, Housing Element: An Element of the General Plan of the City of Los Angeles (1993), 76.
96. Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning ""Proposed Final Environmental Impact Report" (September 1987), i, in Council File 88-0766, (Box C-2107 LACA) regarding General Plan Zoning Consistency Program in Arleta-Pacoima; see Los Angeles (City), Department of City Planning, ""Draft Environmental Impact Report" (July 1987), i, in Council File 88-0727 (Box C-2105 LACA), regarding General Plan Zoning Consistency Program in North Hollywood 70.
97. Los Angeles (City) Department of City Planning, ""Southeast Los Angeles Population Capacity Comparison," p. 9, in Council File 88-1634 attachment II (Box C-2134 LACA)
98. David Ferrell. "Planners OK Zoning Law Limiting City Population," Los Angeles Times, March 8, 1985.
99. John Schwada, "Zoning Structure Is Under Attack," Los Angeles Times, January 3, 1992.
100. Scneider and Teske (1993), 723.
101. Los Angeles (City), City Council ""Motion" December 5, 1986, in Council File 86-2180 (Box C-1386 LACA), for discretionary approval of residential uses in commercially zoned districts.
102. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
103. Sam Hall Kaplan, "Citizens Want a Hand in Zoning," Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1986.
104. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
105. Arnel v. Costa Mesa, 28 Cal 3d 511 (1980)
106. Doug Dowie, "Two Councilmen Take Initiative on Zoning Law," Los Angeles Daily News, March 23, 1986.
107. Los Angeles (City) Council File 86-1090 on Los Angeles City Clerk Connect, http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/.
108. Arnel v. Costa Mesa (1980) ruled that an initiative could be used to rezone any property regardless of its size, paving the way for initiatives such as Proposition U.
109. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
110. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
111. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
112. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
113. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers Hit Mail Hard to Blunt Critics," Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1986.
114. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
115. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers Hit Mail Hard to Blunt Critics," Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1986.
116. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
117. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers Hit Mail Hard to Blunt Critics," Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1986.
118. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers Hit Mail Hard to Blunt Critics," Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1986.
119. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers Hit Mail Hard to Blunt Critics," Los Angeles Times, October 31, 1986.
120. Rich Connell, "Prop U Backers See It as start of Land-Use Revolt," Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1986.
121. Sam Hall Kaplan, "Citizens Want a Hand in Zoning," Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1986.
122. Fulton (2001), 60.
123. Fulton (2001), 49.
124. Los Angeles (City) Ordinance 161684 adopted January 11, 1986.
125. Roger Vincent, "Prop U. passage ushers in era of anti-building fervor," Los Angeles Business Journal, January 26, 1987.
126. Roger Vincent, "Prop U. passage ushers in era of anti-building fervor," Los Angeles Business Journal, January 26, 1987.
127. Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky, "Prop U: Debate Goes on," Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1987.
128. Los Angeles (City), City Council "Motion," December 5, 1986, in Council File 86-2183 (Box C-1387 LACA).
129. Friends of Westwood v. Los Angeles 191 Cal. App. 3d 259 (1987).
130. Dan Shapiro, "Citizen Review Now Can Save Zoning Outrage Later," Los Angeles Times, August 4, 1988.
131. Los Angeles (City), City Council ""Motion," June 10, 1987, and Communication of Mayor Tom Bradley, July 27, 1987, in Council File 87-0986 (Box C-1707 LACA)
132. Los Angeles (City), Ordinance 165951 adopted May 29, 1990.
133. Christopher J. Duerksen, C. Gregory Dale, and Donald L. Elliott, The Citizen's Guide to Planning, 4th ed. (Chicago: American Planning Association, 2009), 156.
134. Council on Development Choices for the '80s, "Factors Shaping Growth in the '80s," ed. James H. Carr and Edward E. Duensing (New Brunswick: Rutgers, 1983), 17.
135. Mike Wyma, "The Nimby Factor," Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1989.
136. Popper (1981).
137. The shortage of housing in the City of Los Angeles has been a concern of the Planning Department and City Council since at least the 1960s, an Ad Hoc Committee on Housing was convened in 1980, a Housing Production Task Force in 1982, and a Housing Crises Task Force in 1999.
138. Numerous authors have documented the relationship of zoning to sprawl, thereby suggesting the relationship of zoning to sprawl's many negative impacts.
139. Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Suburban Nation: the Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (New York: North Point Press, 2000).
140. Oliver Gillham, The Limitless City: A Primer on the Urban Sprawl Debate (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2002).
141. Jonathan Levine, Zoned Out: Regulation, markets and Choices in Transportation and Metropolitan Land-Use (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 2006).
142. Christopher B. Leinberger, The Option of Urbanism: Investing in a New American Dream (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2008).
143. Certainly the business community has been willing to blame antigrowthers for sprawl.
144. Vogel and Swanson (1989).
145. Vogel and Swanson (1989), 70.
146. Southern Burlington County N.A.A.C.P. v. Mount Laurel Township 67 N.J. 151 (1975), Southern Burlington County N.A.A.C.P. v. Mount Laurel Township 92 N.J. 158 (1983).
147. Barbara Taylor, "Property Rights and Freedom Linked," Los Angeles Times, November 9, 1980.
148. Calvin S. Hamilton, "Compensation for Zoning Losses," Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1982.
149. Lowell R. Wedemeyer, "Compensation for Zoning Losses," Los Angeles Times, June 16, 1982.
150. Robert Greene, "Power to the Valley," L. A. Weekly, December 12, 2003, 28.
151. In early 2010, the Department of City Planning estimated that the adaptive reuse ordinance had produced 9,156 units, and implementation of mixed-use Residential Accessory Services zones had resulted in the provision of 10,900 units,
152. Jane Blumenfeld, "L. A. Zoning Turns 100: Now What?" Lecture. The Huntington, San Marino, CA, March 27, 2010.
153. Regarding small lot zoning see Los Angeles (City), City Planning Department "Staff Report" for July 22, 2004, in Council File 04-1546 (LA City Clerk Connect), Los Angeles (City) Ordinance 176354 adopted December 14, 2004, and Christopher Hawthorne,
154. Fledgling Home Projects Emerge from L. A.'s Small Lot Ordinance," Los Angeles Times, June 5, 2008.