The Los Angeles City Planning Commission Collection (LACPC) documents an important transitional period in the history of urban planning in Los Angeles, which is characterized by a movement from Citywide comprehensive planning toward community and region-based planning over the last half of the twentieth century. The collection includes records and publications which document the day-to-day business of LACPC, city planning in specific geographic areas, communities, or districts, and department's vision of the city as a whole.

In 1910, the Los Angeles City Council established a fifteen member Planning Committee to assist in the development of a plan to improve the City. Ten years later, the Planning Committee was replaced by a fifty-two-member City Planning Commission made up of community leaders from civic groups across Los Angeles and one professional planner, George Gordon Whitnall. In 1925, The City Planning Commission was reduced to five members, who were all professional urban planners, and Whitnall was appointed to lead the department. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Commission developed height, area, density, and parking regulations, and standard zone categories. In the mid-1970s, the Los Angeles City Council adopted the Centers Concept, which envisioned the City as a network of urban centers connected by a rail transit system. In the 1990s, City Council developed a new guiding document called the General Plan Framework, which directs plans for future growth in population, jobs, and housing into neighborhood districts, community centers, regional centers, the downtown center, and industrial districts as part of a strategy for comprehensive planning across the City. In 2000, The City Planning Commission was expanded from five to nine members and seven Area Planning Commissions were established.

12.14 linear feet

Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection has been transferred to California State University, Northridge. Copyright status for other materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

The collection is open for research use.