New Policies to Spur Development of More Than 400,000 Housing Units
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass today announced the extension of the transition period for the Al Fresco Outdoor Dining Program application deadline as she highlighted assistance to thousands of businesses through streamlined processes, focused customer service and targeted programs to support small business creation, development and growth in the city. Highlights include:
Businesses secured more than $18 million in financial assistance with City help;
More than 5,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners attended City Small Business Summits to access resources, information and support to succeed;
The review of more than 2,000 mixed-income housing units are being streamlined;
New City policies adopted to spur more than 400,000 units of new housing and adaptive reuse, as well as commercial development in Downtown L.A., Hollywood and across the city.
“Thousands of businesses have been assisted this year building on our momentum to change City Hall into an advocate for businesses – not a barrier,” said Mayor Bass. “That’s why we’re extending the Al Fresco Outdoor Dining Program deadline – because we must support businesses and help them thrive.”
EDs: Mayor Bass visited a small business in the San Fernando Valley and meet with the owner who received a loan to expand its business operations with assistance from the City’s Economic and Workforce Development Department. Since Mayor Bass signed Executive Directive 4, hundreds of businesses have accessed more than $18 million in funding assistance. Photos and broll will be uploaded here by 1:00 PM.
Keeping Outdoor Al Fresco Dining in LA: Ensuring City Hall’s support for L.A. restaurants, Mayor Bass today announced a new extension for the deadline for business owners with a temporary permit to apply to the permanent program and continue offering outdoor dining through the popular Al Fresco program, a streamlined permitting process that allows dining on sidewalks, streets and other outdoor spaces. In addition to the deadline extension, over a million dollars in funding assistance is being made available to support restaurants and provide relief for permitting fees as they transition to the City’s permanent program. Prior to this expansion, Mayor Bass extended an earlier deadline and encouraged City departments to focus on serving business owners to ease the transition to the permanent program. More than 3,000 businesses were contacted with support resources. The Mayor’s Office coordinated two in-person one-stop-shop application clinics in Van Nuys and Koreatown to bring together relevant City departments and provide tailored customer service to nearly 100 restaurant owners.
Making It Easier For L.A. Businesses to Thrive: Since signing Executive Directive 4 to support small business creation, development, and growth, the City has helped hundreds of businesses secure more than $18 million in assistance. More than 5,000 small business owners and entrepreneurs attended 6 small business summits that the Mayor’s Office of Business and Economic Development held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, BMO Stadium, the LA Coliseum, Los Angeles Trade Technical-College, Los Angeles Mission College, and California State University, Los Angeles.
Preparing for the Future: The Mayor’s Office hosted its first ever Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Supplier Diversity Summit in partnership with BMO and AEG for 1,500+ L.A. businesses looking to connect to opportunities with private-sector partners, such as LA28, the LA Kings, and LA Galaxy, and learn about 22 procurement resources ahead of L.A. hosting major world events like the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Building the Pipeline: More than 269 entrepreneurs and small business owners applied for the Mayor’s new ‘ProcureLA’ Program to create a pipeline of businesses that are ready and equipped to win contracting opportunities ahead of major upcoming events.
Increasing Digital Capacity: The Mayor’s Office launched ‘LA Optimized 2.0’ to help small businesses build and strengthen their digital presence - to date, 475 businesses have been helped with their websites and marketing.
Sharpening Key Skills: Nearly 100+ business owners graduated from the first-ever LApreneur program, launched in May 2024, to streamline entrepreneurship education and resources on a new online learning platform that offers business owners key skills and information to succeed.
Opening New Centers: The City opened 2 new BusinessSource Centers in Boyle Heights and Watts to help more small businesses start, grow and develop. Over the last two years, 10 BusinessSource Centers in the city have provided 7,245 services to Angelenos.
Establishing a Small Business Team: As promised during the campaign, the Mayor immediately established a small business team within her Office of Business and Economic Development to focus on the backbone of L.A.’s local economy. The team established a Business Concierge (businessconcierge@lacity.org) to help businesses “troubleshoot” questions with City departments and processes.
Increasing Customer Service: A public counter opened in Van Nuys to assist street vendors with permitting.
Supporting the Entertainment Industry: Mayor Bass joined Governor Gavin Newsom to unveil a historic expansion of California’s Film and television Tax Credit Program to $750 million, which was originally created when Mayor Bass served as Speaker of the California State Assembly. Prior to that, Mayor Bass initiated urgent local actions to help Hollywood stabilize, including:
Providing a Seat and the Table: Established an Entertainment Industry Council to draw on the expertise of industry leaders to act on reversing this trend and to keep production local.
Keeping Industry Local: Signed Executive Directive 8 to focus on the industry workforce, streamline City processes for production and strategize on policy to keep production and jobs local.
Building New Spaces: Created new studio and soundstage concierge services, which cut red tape and provide direct assistance with City departments. The program has helped 7 new studios and soundstages. In addition, 8.1 million square feet of soundstage, media production, and associated creative office space are in the pipeline within the City.
Breaking New Ground: Broke ground on the 5-acre film soundstage and production studio campus by East End Studios that will bring cutting edge creative facilities to Downtown.
These urgent actions follow Mayor Bass’ strong support for a fair agreement to be reached between labor unions and studios. Mayor Bass remains focused on stabilizing and rebuilding L.A.’s signature industry and supporting the many local businesses who rely on its ripple effect to thrive.
Streamlining and Accelerating Housing Production: Keeping with her commitment to make housing more available and affordable to Angelenos, Mayor Bass signed Executive Directive 7 to incentivize more housing to be built faster for people of all income levels. ED7 has streamlined processes including:
Streamlining Review: Directing City departments to streamline the approval of mixed-income housing projects, which is accelerating more than 2,000 units of housing across income levels.
Expanding Housing Capacity: The City Council yesterday approved the transformative Housing Element implementation programs, including the CHIP (Citywide Housing Incentive Program), which will provide incentives and zoning capacity for more than 255,000 new housing units citywide. This program represents the most significant expansion of zoning to increase housing development that the City has undertaken.
Accelerating Timelines: Adopting new construction noise thresholds for CEQA analysis, which can save projects months and even years in processing time for housing that have no other environmental impacts. The Department of City Planning estimates that this could accelerate the delivery of up to 20% of proposed projects that currently require an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), while still ensuring that community-protective noise features are required.
Saving Projects Time: Providing new CEQA tools for individual housing projects to tier off a Citywide programmatic EIR, saving time and streamlining CEQA review while still safely mitigating all potential impacts to the environment.
Revitalizing Downtown: Downtown Los Angeles is the heart of the city in many ways – a hub for entertainment, culture, activity and so much more. The Mayor is committed to Downtown’s vibrant future and in addition to actions taken thus far, will be rolling out future strategies to build on Downtown’s potential and help it fully recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
Modernizing the LA Convention Center: Mayor Bass and the City Council moved forward on the modernization and expansion of the Downtown Convention Center to invest in Downtown’s revitalization. Investing in the Convention Center is a commitment to attracting tourists, business travelers, restaurant patrons and more jobs in Downtown and beyond.
Supporting DTLA’s Economy: During preparations for the Dodgers Championship Parade in Downtown, Mayor Bass called on parade attendees and visitors to consider staying Downtown to explore, eat and safely enjoy time with loved ones after the parade. The Mayor’s Office highlighted local businesses and places to stay Downtown.
Approving the DTLA 2040 Community Plan: Approved this week, the Downtown Community Plan will create capacity to add more than 100,000 housing units and welcome more than 55,000 jobs and 125,000 people to Downtown Los Angeles, a hub for economic opportunity, culture and entertainment.
Fostering Adaptive Reuse Opportunities: Through Executive Directive 7, Mayor Bass directed City departments to look creatively at how to cut through red tape and help convert existing buildings into housing through adaptive reuse. Downtown has evolved because of adaptive reuse development and there is now an exciting opportunity to build on that success. The Mayor’s Office held a roundtable discussion with City leadership, real estate developers, Downtown stakeholders and other experts to drill down on potential policy changes to the City’s building code to foster more adaptive reuse opportunities in Downtown and beyond. The Mayor’s Office is coordinating with the State to advance necessary State building code updates. City Council yesterday approved the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance, applying the policy citywide and increasing opportunities for adaptive reuse in Hollywood and Downtown L.A.
Welcoming Visitors to Los Angeles: As Mayor Bass has continued to open L.A. for business, she is also welcoming back visitors from around the world. Tourism is a vital local economic driver, and the City is on track to hit our goal of welcoming more visitors this year than last year. As we look towards various world events coming to Los Angeles, leading up to the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will be updating our Tourism Master Plan, which will be crucial for shaping the future of tourism in our vibrant city. The Plan will be released next year.
Breaking Records at the Port: The Port of L.A continues to rank as the busiest port in the United States for 24 consecutive years making it vital infrastructure that the nation relies on for goods movement. The Port recently announced that 20% more goods have been moved this year thus far compared to last year. The volume of goods movement in September significantly outpaced last September, marking the close of the busiest quarter ever at the Port. It is on track to hit 10 million Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) of product for only the second time in its 116-year history.
Securing historic funding to cut air pollution: Over the past two years, Los Angeles secured nearly $1 billion in funding to reduce pollution in port communities and achieve 100% zero-emission terminal operations by 2030. That includes an unprecedented $412 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Ports Program to support the zero-emission (ZE) transition at the nation’s busiest trade gateway. In support of its goal to achieve 100% zero-emission terminal operations by 2030, this funding will enable the Port to purchase zero-emission yard tractors, drayage trucks, top handlers, heavy forklifts, battery electric storage systems, chargers, and more. The grant will also set a new standard for environmental stewardship in the maritime industry by directly funding an innovative, community-led $50 million ZE grant program in partnership with the Harbor Community Benefits Foundation, prioritizing investments that benefit frontline, disadvantaged areas.
Earning Employer of the Year: The Port was named Employer of the Year for its significant efforts to advance women within its ranks and in the transportation field overall. The Port was recognized by WTS-LA, an international organization dedicated to creating a more diverse, inclusive and equitable transportation industry through the global advancement of women.
Building a World Class Airport: Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) is transforming Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) into a world class gateway that will be ready to welcome the world ahead of events including the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Significant milestones were achieved as part of its multi-billion-dollar Capital Improvement Program, including:
Automated People Mover System (APM): Currently in testing, the APM’s train cars can now be seen entering LAX’s Central Terminal Area (CTA). Approximately 30 million passengers per year are expected to ride the system, eliminating more than one hundred thousand vehicle miles traveled to the airport per day.
Connecting All Terminals Past Security Screening: All of LAX’s terminals are now connected after security screening. This allows guests to pass through security screening at one terminal and enjoy concessions and amenities in any terminal or to make their connecting flight in another terminal without having to pass through screening again.
Consolidated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) Facility: The ConRAC project was completed, and will consolidate rental car operations currently spread across the surrounding area of LAX. This 6.4-million square-foot facility will house more than 18,000 rental car vehicles and include spaces for vehicle maintenance and storage, as well as employee parking. The ConRAC is directly connected to the APM, and upon the train system’s opening, will eliminate more than 3,200 daily rental car shuttle trips on the surrounding streets between the facility and LAX.
Modernizing Terminals: LAWA completed the final of seven Terminal Vertical Cores this year, which will serve three APM stations upon the train system’s opening. LAWA also completed the modernization of Terminal 6, which offers guests more space in the terminal’s gate areas, an improved U.S. Customs and Border Protection Federal Inspection Station, and a drive-through bus gate, which provides guests with easier access to or from other terminals.
Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South: All nine separate pieces of the MSC South project were built offsite and successfully transported across LAX’s northern airfield to its final construction site. Upon its planned opening in 2025, MSC South will be LAX’s latest world-class facility as part of its Capital Improvement Program. More than 32% of the project’s total work hours were completed by local workers, surpassing the project’s goal of 30%, creating and sustaining local job opportunities.
Addressing Homelessness and Supporting Local Businesses: Under the Bass Administration, business assistance includes addressing encampments outside of storefronts, offices and workplaces. More than 70 encampments have been addressed since Mayor Bass took office, many of which were previously impacting local and legacy businesses such as Sunset Sound and Amoeba Records.
Equipping Youth and Young Adults With Skills and Experience: Mayor Bass continues to prioritize expanding economic opportunity for Angelenos. This year, the Office of Economic Opportunity will equip more than 1,600 young people with jobs and training until December 2025 through Round 2 of funding from California Volunteers. This builds on the 2-year Round 1 grant that placed thousands of young Angelenos in paid internships, which is scheduled to end in December 2024. To date, the initiative has served:
1,539 high school student tutors and interns;
1,057 Angeleno Corps Service interns;
571 LA: RISE Youth Academy program participants/interns;
544 City Pathways interns across 25 City departments, 6 Council Offices, and 4 units within the Mayor's Office;
241 Early Childhood Education Student Advancement interns;
234 Board of Public Works Clean LA/River Rangers interns;
151 Summer Night Lights and Fall Friday Nights interns; and
363 various interns for food insecurity, food waste/composting, urban gardening/urban forestry projects and related efforts.
Connecting Formerly Homeless Individuals to Jobs and Opportunities: This year, under Mayor Karen Bass' leadership, the Job Connector Program, managed by her Office of Economic Opportunity, connected formerly unhoused Angelenos with meaningful employment, education, and training opportunities. In partnership with the Office of Housing and Homelessness Solutions, the program empowers individuals to reenter the workforce and secure a brighter future.
Currently serving nearly 20 housing sites across the City of Los Angeles, the Job Connector Program has provided the following this year:
More than 400 referrals for education/employment support;
More than 800 job applications have been sent out by participants;
More than 200 resumes have been created for participants to support their job search;
More than 100 participants secured employment and/or enrolled in an education or workforce program.
Working with Federal Partners To Deliver for Minority-Owned and Local Businesses: Mayor Bass has locked arms with the Biden-Harris Administration and SBA Administrator Isabel Guzman to deliver for L.A.’s small businesses. In May, Administrator Guzman and Mayor Bass helped open the first federally recognized Women’s Business Center in South L.A. to help businesses launch, grow and develop. The Mayor’s Small Business Cabinet has the expertise of the SBA informing her policy as SBA Los Angeles District Director Julie Clowes serves in the Cabinet, alongside former SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet.
The SBA has significantly scaled its support for L.A. small businesses over the last four years, including:
Nearly 1,000 more loans to LA small businesses;
Tens of millions more loan dollars to Black-owned businesses, a hundred million more dollars to Latino-owned businesses and to women-owned businesses; and
148% increase in small dollar loans, from 661 loans in 2020 to 1,248 in 2024.
Prioritizing Small and Local Businesses Ahead of Major Events – In partnership with LA28, the Mayor’s Office of International Affairs hosted 3 business roundtable discussions with regional affiliate business chambers, associations and organizations focused on contracting and procurement opportunities for the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games. The Mayor’s Office continues to engage with dozens of organizations ahead of the Games.
Locking Arms to Bring International Business to Los Angeles: The Mayor’s Office of International Affairs has engaged with nearly 500 international companies, ensuring they know that Los Angeles is open for business ahead of major events coming to Los Angeles. These efforts will continue as Mayor Bass has made clear that creating jobs and economic opportunities for Angelenos ahead of major events is a top priority.
Responding During Emergencies: Businesses are prioritized during emergency response under Mayor Bass’ leadership.
Rebuilding from the I-10 freeway closure: The City has helped businesses impacted by the 10 Freeway closure access more than $5 million in Economic Injury Disaster Loans through the Small Business Administration. In the immediate wake of the I-10 freeway closure, Mayor Bass’ Office shared resources and support with impacted businesses including a micro-enterprise grant program.
Urgently harnessing resources after unprecedented rain: During the unprecedented heavy rains in February 2024, the City opened Local Assistance Centers (LACs) for homeowners, renters and business owners impacted by the early February storms that hit Los Angeles. These centers were a one-stop shop where Angelenos could ask questions and obtain information regarding services and assistance available from government agencies and local nonprofits. After Mayor Bass called for federal assistance, federal assistance became available for Angelenos and businesses impacted by the storms.