LA County Regional Planning Commission (RPC) - 100 Yrs

2023 represents a significant milestone for the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission (Commission) as we celebrate the centennial anniversary of its formation.   In late 1922, the County’s Board of Supervisors created the Commission to coordinate planning matters within the region. In early 1923 the Board of Supervisors appointed the inaugural members of the Commission, which held its first meeting on March 2, 1923. 

The actions of the Board of Supervisors make the Commission the oldest county planning agency in the United States. Supported by multitudes of staff throughout the ages, and then through the formation of the Department of Regional Planning in 1974, the Commission and its staff remain committed to providing expert best planning guidance to the Commission and the Board of Supervisors.

The inaugural members of the Regional Planning Commissioners imbued a strong sense of purpose when they were appointed in 1923. Their terms of service are given below.

        Robert M. Allan                        1923-1924

        George A Damon                      1923-1925

        Bert. R. Holloway                     1923-1932

        Mrs. Charles F. Gray                1923-1936

        Hugh R. Pomeroy                     1923-1927               

The section below shows the buildings that housed the Regional Planning Commission (and staff) and the staff of the Department of Regional Planning. Original (early 1900's) building is referred to as the [Old] Hall of Records. The 1962 building is referred to as the [New] Hall of Records.

Annual Report of the Regional Planning Commission, 1962-63

Intro Excerpt: The material herein is for the purpose of answering by example certain questions pertaining to Regional Planning. The essentials are: An effective Commission; proper direction of the work; sound engineering principles; adequate research and statistics; a comprehensive highway plan; a wholesome regulation of land subdivision; regulation of use of property based on comprehensive zoning; recognition of the problems of landscape design; informational material properly prepared - brief, concise, and with emphasis on visual persuasion; above all, the moulding of public opinion for a comprehensive plan, well prepared and possible of accomplishment.

The Timeline below represents just a few of the key events or milestones reached in the past hundred years.

The mid 1950’s were a major turning point in the Commission’s history. Milton Breivogel was appointed Planning Director in 1953 and initiated the area studies program as a strategy for developing a Countywide plan. Over the next 15 years, the Commission produced eight major area studies:

• East San Gabriel Valley (1956)
• Southeast (1959)
• North County (1961)
• Southeast (1961)
• East Central (1963)
• Malibu (1965)
• San Fernando Valley (1967)
• West San Gabriel Valley (1968)

As of 2023, there are 88 incorporated cities within Los Angeles County. This is a far different landscape from one hundred years ago, when only 38 incorporated cities existed. Several of these cities were the recipients of base zoning code and development patterns created or approved by the Regional Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors in the intervening decades. 

By 1970, 77 cities had incorporated and myriad special districts were formed to address the explosive post-World War II population growth.  However, the regional vision of the early Commissions eroded due to the fracturing of the unincorporated areas into new jurisdictions, often forming in defiance of the County’s governance stance or its positions on economic, social, housing and infrastructure issues.  

Today, the Department of Regional Planning provides full-service planning functions to nearly 125 +/- communities in the unincorporated areas in addition to limited contract services to a handful of cities for more complicated planning functions, such as subdivision planning.

Here's an animation showing incorporations and annexations history from 1923 to 2023.

Other communities heavily influenced by work of the Regional Planning Commission include the County-owned seaside community of Marina Del Rey, Newhall (which eventually jumpstarted the formation of the City of Santa Clarita), the City of Diamond Bar, the City of Westlake Village, and several cities where the General Plan documents were created by the RPC (Cudahy, Lawndale and Maywood).

Los Angeles County focused on many significant master plans throughout its early history, but these planning efforts were not necessarily tied together as a single vision.  Most local governments, including the County, encouraged and pursued policies aimed at encouraging unlimited growth.  This is evidenced by the nearly 4 million new residents and 2 million new jobs between 1940 and 1970.  This explosive and uncontrolled growth began to have negative consequences.   The Commission recognized emerging societal pressures and the negative consequences of road congestion, pollution, economic decline and explosive social unrest. The three-phase program, as conceived, aimed at producing a comprehensive policy document to improve the physical, social, economic and environmental conditions of the unincorporated areas.

The Board of Supervisors adopted the notable Environmental Development Guide (EDG) in 1970. This event, occurring at a time of fundamental changes in public attitudes towards planning and during a time when state and federal planning laws were being significantly reformed, ushered in one of the most significant periods of institutional change in the Commission’s history.  The Commission attempted to balance growth in the suburbs with investment in the older urban areas of the county.   Adoption of a controversial revision of the EDG in 1973 set the stage for a successful legal challenge of the revision (Coalition for Los Angeles County Planning in the Public Interest v. Board of Supervisors -Civ. No. 51128. Second Dist., Div. One. December 28, 1977, colloquially known as the Thomas Decision) which had the practical effect of reinstating the 1970 EDG pending the preparation of a revised Countywide General Plan.

State planning law reforms added several new mandatory components to the General Plan and required that zoning be consistent with the General Plan. Court decisions like the Thomas Decision and new state and federal laws ushered in the era of environmental impact analysis and coastal planning. The Regional Planning Department was formally created in 1974. Prior to that time, planning staff had served as the RPC staff.  Norman Murdoch was appointed director of the new department in 1974, taking the reins of a new Department with a new focus.

The result was the adoption in 1980 of the Countywide General Plan, which finally replaced the 1970 EDG. This extraordinary document provided a consistent General Plan for the entire County and addressed a wide range of important issues. Other Countywide plans or plan elements of this period included:

• Safety (1975)
• Seismic Safety (1975)
• Noise (1975)
• Scenic Highways (1975)
• Bikeways (1975)
• Housing (Revised); (1987)
• Economic Development (Revised, 1987)
• Safety (Revised) (1990)

Of course, the Department embarked on an update to this General Plan in the year 2000 and, while it took many years, the latest Los Angeles County General Plan was adopted in 2015.

Name & Title                                      Dates of Service

Hugh L. Pomeroy, Secretary                 1923-1927

Charles H. Diggs, Director                     1927-1934

William J. Fox, Chief Engineer              1926-1948

Arthur H. Adams, Director                    1949-1952

Earl J. Esse, Director                                1952-1953

Milton Breivogel, Director                     1953-1967

Orville K. Christenson, Director          1967-1974

Edgar T. Irvine, Acting Director 1974

Norman Murdoch, Director                  1974-1989

James E. Hartl, Director                         1989-2006

Bruce McClendon, Director                   2006-2009

Jon Sanabria, Acting Director                2009-2010

Richard Bruckner, Director          2010-2017

Dennis Slavin, Acting Director              2017-2018

Amy J. Bodek, AICP, Director            2018-Present

Maps have always been used by planners. Below is a sample of some maps created or used by the Regional Planning Commission and staff of the Department of Regional Planning through the years.

Land use planning is fundamentally a sociopolitical endeavor comprised of actors responding to existing circumstances while simultaneously considering the best future outcomes of land development. Planning processes occur in the dynamic context of social, economic, political, and cultural forces. The primary focus of planning is land and how it is used and organized to foster economic development, protect and manage natural resources, and most crucially, create and maintain sustainable neighborhoods, communities, places and regions. The organization of land, its uses, its inhabitants, businesses, and industries reflect the values of society, which change over time.

The organization of land is a unique process because of the lasting physical results of the built environment. The subdivided parcels, constructed businesses and homes, roads and freeways, and expansion into open space are not quickly reversed or changed once in place. The circumstances, conditions and values that guided land use planning 100 years ago are largely different, though some remain today. At its core land use planning responds to and anticipates issues such as population growth, housing, compatibility of uses, open space and natural resources protection, and community and economic development. Land use decisions have lasting effects that have ideally anticipated the best future outcomes. However, there are instances where land use planning has lent itself to inequitable outcomes that innocently may not have been intended for those that were ostensibly deliberate.

The best land use planning involves the analysis of accurate data, input from all affected stakeholders, and strong policy guidance. This process demands that all voices are heard and that all scenarios for future development and implications are considered. At different points in the history of land use planning the decision-making has been affected by existing circumstances such as “state of practice” and institutionalized prejudices and biases. This has led to land use outcomes and the organization of space that have benefitted some groups at the expense of others. While likely well-intentioned at one point in time in the land use planning decision-making process, the outcomes, in some instances immediately and others over time, were not equitable. They created new or exacerbated existing social inequities.

In the throes of the Great Depression, the federal government sought to alleviate the precipitous loss of home ownership through a loan program administered by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC). Maps of major metropolitan areas were created to advise loan officials of mortgage default risk. Couched in a time of blatant, institutionalized racism, the maps effectively guided development investment and subdivision activity to areas not occupied by people of color. This contributed to an investment and land development pattern that left communities of color with few opportunities for home ownership as well as sowing the seeds of inhospitable and toxic uses being positioned in or adjacent to communities of color in subsequent decades. The HOLC maps, known as residential security maps, ceased to be prepared by 1940, however, their legacy as a spatial representation of institutionalized racism is still contended with today. While redlining financing and lending practices were made illegal with the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the nearly 30 years of its active practice clouded the best intentions of local land use planners to develop community plans that valued home ownership and investment in high-quality rental housing stock.

Single purpose or exclusionary zoning, development standards for yards and residential building heights, and commercial zoning standards that took hold in the explosive suburban growth of the 1950s structured neighborhood development that consumed vast amounts of open space, threatened natural habitats, and privileged the predominantly white middle class. People of color had far greater challenges in securing mortgages to take advantage of the suburban expansion for home ownership. The freeway building that emerged in the 1950s and continued through the 1990s as a national program to connect cities ultimately justified and facilitated sprawl, leaving behind traditional and proven land use approaches such as mixed-use that was more human-scaled, walkable, local business centered, and more amenable to heterogeneous populations.

The outcomes of land use planning decisions made decades ago continue to reverberate. Neighborhoods split in half by freeways were irreparably changed yet seek some return to wholeness with caps that can become parks and walkable connections over freeway chasms. The large lot subdivision of the 1950s has given way to smaller compact lots that increase the yield of housing units and simultaneously conserve more open space. Still, the voices of people of color are not heard or involved in planning processes to the extent that they should be. Their voices, values, and visions must be respected and incorporated into all land use decisions with the intent that future patterns of development will be equitable and conducive to sustainable neighborhoods, communities, places, and regions.

LA County Planning just completed a strategic plan which focuses on race and equity in support of the countywide initiative ARDI (anti-racism, diversity and inclusion) embedding equity into everything we do as a department. Below are a couple applications that were put together to aid the department moving forward.

As we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, we see not only the extraordinary growth that has occurred in the County but also how the Commission and the Department of Regional Planning have served key roles in guiding and responding to the region's development. Throughout this past century, several key constants have been ever present - continuous growth and change; socioeconomic and environmental impacts of planning decisions; innovations in information technology and its usage; and planning practices that consistently envision a greater future for the County.

It is no small wonder what the earliest Commissioners might have thought the future would hold in 100 years. Our current generation of planners likely shares similar thoughts for what lies ahead, beyond the more immediate time horizons of their current plans and projects. This story map is intended to serve as a time capsule for Regional Planning's first 100 years. It is sincerely desired that County planners a century from now will look back on this 100th anniversary moment and have an even greater sense of achievement for their own era. Our hope is that future planning efforts come to fruition in positive and innovative ways that we perhaps cannot yet imagine.