LOS ANGELES, CA – Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis released the following statement after the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved two motions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by supporting programs focused on improving public health and addressing environmental injustices.
“The legacies of harmful land use policies and environmental catastrophes have left a lasting imprint on the health, well-being, and quality of life for residents in unincorporated communities,” said Supervisor Solis. “In an effort to transform and correct these injustices, the County has moved the needle on a Green Zones Program and Transformative Climate Communities Program – two initiatives focused on addressing environmental discrimination and uplifting sustainability. Climate change can become something of the past, but only by moving on policies and programs that reduce toxic pollutants and contaminants. These two motions seek to do just that.”
The first motion establishes an interim urgency ordinance on new drive-through establishments within the boundaries of Green Zones Program communities (East Los Angeles, Florence-Firestone, Walnut Park, West-Athens-Westmont, West Rancho-Dominguez-Victoria, West Carson, East Rancho Dominguez, West Whittier-Los Nietos, Avocado Heights, and South San Jose Hills) as the current Zoning Code does not have specific regulations for these land uses. Drive-through establishments are located throughout these Green Zones Program communities, with concentrations near the on-and-off ramps of these major freeways and along well-traveled highways in the County. Some of these on-and-off ramps and highways have antiquated designs that funnel traffic onto local streets and into residential neighborhoods. As the County seeks to establish more pedestrian, bike, and transit-friendly multi-modal environments to reverse the environmental injustices of the past, the physical impacts of drive-throughs on local communities must be better regulated.
The second motion directs the County’s Chief Sustainability Office to collaborate with the Department of Regional Planning, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Public Works, the Internal Services Department, the Department of Parks & Recreation, Metro, and other relevant departments, to develop draft strategies and potential projects in unincorporated East Los Angeles for Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) Program for application consideration. In 2018, the County applied for and received a TCC Program planning grant for unincorporated East Los Angeles through the State’s Strategic Growth Council (SGC) which sets some of the groundwork on how we can support climate resilience.
The grant would help the County implement the recommendations developed in the planning grant titled “Nuestra Tierra, Nuestro Futuro: A Sustainable Community Ownership and Land Stewardship Pilot in Unincorporated East Los Angeles”, which includes the development of a Community Land Trust and the development of local food systems and parks/open spaces in unincorporated East Los Angeles.
To read the first motion, click here.
To read the second motion, click here.
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