Skip to main content
Donate

NELA Urban Design Committee

By Jillian Olivas
June 6, 2013
Support Provided By
NELA Overhead Advisory Comm-thumb-630x424-76157

To create a sense of place that is both neighborhood distinct and river oriented, a collective vision of urban design is necessary. Currently, developers and public entities look to Neighborhood Councils as one avenue to provide community feedback for development projects. Similarly, Council District 13 has a Design Review Committee made up of local architects, designers, and urban planners to provide feedback for major development projects. The Department of City Planning has an Urban Design Studio that ensures projects meet design guidelines. Collectively, these groups do not come together to provide a voice for urban design in the Study Area.

The creation of a NELA Urban Design Committee, represented by community organizations and all of the Neighborhood Councils within the Study Area, can provide an unified urban design perspective. Specifically, this committee can ensure that development projects, public spaces, artistic structures, and public art highlight the character of the neighborhoods and the River. One example is the review of river and neighborhood themed visual art on public structures such as utility boxes, garbage cans, and bicycle racks.

Support Provided By
Read More
An oil pump painted white with red accents stands mid-pump on a dirt road under a blue, cloudy sky with a green, grassy slope in the background.

California’s First Carbon Capture Project: Vital Climate Tool or License to Pollute?

California’s first attempt to capture and sequester carbon involves California Resources Corp. collecting emissions at its Elk Hills Oil and Gas Field, and then inject the gases more than a mile deep into a depleted oil reservoir. The goal is to keep carbon underground and out of the atmosphere, where it traps heat and contributes to climate change. But some argue polluting industries need to cease altogether.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News