Council approves ordinance adding discretionary review for very large retail in some commercial zones

The Los Angeles City Council on July 10 approved an ordinance that will require discretionary review for new large-format retail stores in certain neighborhood commercial zones.

The ordinance was approved by roll call after public comment and committee discussion. The council voted 14 ayes to approve the measure.

Marco Feinberg, representing United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, criticized the measure as a narrowing of earlier protections and urged the council to send the proposal back to Planning for further work. "The instant motion, however, merely limits big box stores of a hundred thousand square feet or more from being built in land zone to C1 or C1.5," Feinberg said, adding that the earlier motion approved in committee would have restricted approvals for stores exceeding 150,000 square feet where a large share of the floor area was devoted to nontaxable merchandise. He argued the committee's replacement proposal would still allow very large stores in most commercial and industrial zones and would not mitigate harms to neighborhood groceries and local shopping centers.

Councilmember Bernsen said the ordinance should move forward as approved in committee and that a separate motion by Councilmember Hernandez requiring an economic analysis should proceed concurrently through staff. "If we build our case carefully and approve this today, which gives us an added protection that we don't have now, and then we move forward with Mr. Hernandez's motion, which will give us the ability to look at the impact that these particular, large box stores may have," Bernsen said.

Councilmember Sekowsky said the land-use measure and the economic-analysis motion are complementary: the ordinance gives the city discretionary review and notice to communities while the separate economic study would assess broader market impacts. Councilmember Reyes urged departments to return with a strategy to ensure local communities have points of access to the review process.

The ordinance was taken up following remarks in committee and a public hearing in which the Planning Department and Planning Commission recommendations were discussed. The Planning Department had recommended a different approach than the original ordinance that motivated the committee motion, and speakers noted that the Planning Commission and the Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) committee had previously considered versions of the proposal.

The council approved the ordinance by roll call. The ordinance does not itself create a required economic-impact study; councilmembers said the Hernandez motion directing an economic analysis would be advanced separately through staff and committee processes.

The council's action gives the city discretionary review authority in the specified neighborhood commercial zones; the ordinance's broader application and any implementing rules, including findings required to deny approvals in commercial zones, will be defined in Planning Department and City Attorney work that councilmembers asked to be accelerated.

The measure was approved with the roll-call result announced as "14 ayes."