Numerous existing city planning initiatives seek to address energy issues relating to building energy consumption, air quality, mobility, GHG emissions, and solar energy production and storage through land use, zoning, housing, and transportation policy.
Mayor Garcetti’s Sustainable City pLAn and the associated mobility, health, and housing elements of the new General Framework, as well as the Clean Up Green Up ordinance seek to address, in a number of ways, active mobility, GHG reduction, building energy efficiency, R1 auxiliary structure allowability, static industrial emissions, residential and civic PV capacity, energy infrastructure updating, issues of industrial proximity, distributed and utility-based energy storage, green jobs, and climate preparedness & resiliency. The city also offers several incentives for residential and commercial solar siting with varied success though the Solar Incentives Program (SIP), net metering, feed-in-tariff, and the forthcoming Community Solar Initiative.
The Mayor’s Sustainable City pLAn sets clear near and long-term goals, calling for 1,500-1,800MW installed PV production by 2035, 1,645MW installed energy storage by 2025 (excluding the existing LADWP Castaic Pumped Storage Facility), as well as national leadership on electric vehicle infrastructure, reduction of urban heat island effect, and expansions in feed-in-tariff and net-metering.
Though spotlighted as critical, these energy initiatives remain embedded within the context of other categorical distinctions such as "environment", "economy", "housing", "mobility", and "health", and are nowhere singled out cumulatively under the distinction Energy. Furthermore, while Sustainable City pLAn directives such as the Integrated Response Plan (IRP) set a clear trajectory for the LADWP in determining and evaluating energy futures, there exists no dedicated energy-specific planning element for land use.