CITY OF LOS ANGELES URBAN WILDLIFE ORDINANCE
Kat Superfisky has been contributing urban ecological expertise to the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning’s Wildlife Pilot Study and proposed Wildlife Ordinance since 2019, which is an effort to identify potential Protection Areas for Wildlife (PAWs) and Wildlife Movement Pathways (WMPs) within the City of Los Angeles and propose a set of land use regulations that would balance development with wildlife habitat and connectivity in those ecologically important areas.
CHECK OUT MORE AT THE CITY OF LA’S WILDLIFE WEBSITE AND BELOW...
CHANNEL 35 - LA THIS WEEK
Members of the Department of City Planning are conducting a Wildlife Pilot Study to gather information about the flora and fauna co-existing with development in Los Angeles.
[FEBRUARY 2021]
CHANNEL 35 - LA THIS WEEK
Former Councilmember Koretz and the Department of City Planning take extra steps to ensure that urban development plans for the city grow in concert with the conservation of wildlife.
[APRIL 2021]
UCLA CONVERSATION ON WILDLIFE CORRIDORS
In September of 2021, the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge hosted a conversation on Los Angeles wildlife corridors and the pending Wildlife Ordinance, which was developed to balance wildlife habitat and connectivity with private property development in Los Angeles, mainly between the 101 and 405 freeways and within the Santa Monica Mountains.
In July 2021, the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge released its Ecosystem Health Report Card for Los Angeles County, which dedicated a chapter to Land Use and Habitat Quality that covered habitat connectivity and fragmentation and corridor projects throughout the region. The report card found that only 57% of critical habitat corridors in the county are protected, and recommended policy to increase that protection to 100% to ensure no more extinction in one of the nation’s only biodiversity hotspots.
[SEPTEMBER 2021]
“Managing Urban Ecosystems: An Introduction to the Special Issue”
To share the land use strategies that the City of LA proposed in the Wildlife Ordinance with others who might want to adopt similar strategies, Kat Superfisky catalyzed and served as a Co-Editor on a Cities and the Environment (CATE) open access Special Issue on Managing Urban Ecosystems.
[2023]
“Balancing Human Development with Wildlife Habitat and Connectivity through the Creation of Land Use Regulations for Private Property in Los Angeles, California”
Unlike more “wildland” ecosystems, urban ecosystems are not solely owned and/or managed by public entities or with the sole goal of ecosystem restoration. The important plants, animals and ecosystems in cities are scattered across open spaces and public parks that are already protected and being managed for conservation, as well as on private properties that often comprise the majority of land in cities, which supports the need to address biodiversity and climate resiliency at multiple scales, on various land uses, and through a diverse array of strategies.
Municipal governments, such as the City of Los Angeles (City), can play an essential role in addressing biodiversity and habitat connectivity on both public and private land in cities through plans, reports and policies that can help to create more “symbiotic cities”. Since public lands are largely already protected, zoned for open space and/or managed by various municipal, county, state, federal and/or non-profit agencies, it is critical to look to private property protections to ensure a cohesive approach to managing urban ecosystems.
As such, the City’s Department of City Planning is proposing a Wildlife Ordinance that will enact a set of land use regulations that aim to balance private development with the need for wildlife habitat and connectivity (via standards related to grading; residential floor area; lot coverage; vegetation and landscaping; height; fences and walls; lighting, windows; and trash enclosures).
[2023]