Recently some buildings were torn down in our neighborhood, land graded, and a fence put up. It took about a day. That was plenty of time to light up the neighborhood's internet sites with people asking "what's going on?"
This should be no surprise with today's instant communications, even if questions are limited to a small part of a small community.
But what was really surprising was that I was able to find the answer within an hour of being asked.
This is surprising because the City of Los Angeles does not post on the internet information on proposed projects. It mails applicant provided paper files to neighborhood councils and sends an electronic table that contains all recent city applications filed. That table contains a 2 or 3 line narrative description of the project.
I was able to find this project because the applicant had posted drawings and plans on their own web page.
The City relies on paper to distribute this information to communities. It mails a copy of a projects documents to neighborhood councils and uses a private company, BTC, to mail public hearing notices. Some neighborhood councils post projects on their own web page.
About a dozen years ago the Planning Department's computer systems administrator and I both agreed it was inevitable that proposed projects would be on the web: the increase in accessibility and savings in staff resources make the idea a no-brainer. The easiest way to implement would be is for BTC to contract a web designer to post projects when they are filed. An applicant has to visit BTC just before they file a case so it's a perfect opportunity. And there would be no cost to the City, BTC can add the cost to their mailing fee.
I've updated the idea to include a DISCUSSION BOARD with a project's posting. It's another way to democratize the process. It's time the City got on-board.
