L.A. City's Economic Development Agenda: Deputy Mayor Renata Simril Makes Her Case

Renata, your deputy mayor duties seem to have no boundaries, so lets begin with you listing the city departments and services you now oversee for the mayor?

The three priority areas for Mayor Hahn under my purview include economic development, housing, and workforce development. As a result, I oversee the following departments: Planning Department, Community Development Department, Housing Department, Building and Safety Department, and the Community Redevelopment Agency. This structure allows us to apply a comprehensive approach to economic development.

What are the mayor's priorities for these departments that report to you?

Mayor Hahn's economic development priorities are to ensure that Los Angeles has quality affordable housing, to create jobs and to expand opportunities for business growth. Mayor Hahn's priorities are supported by three guiding principles: to promote the development and preservation of equitable housing, support employment growth and workforce literacy and to create an environment to expand business activity. We call it "The Power of e3." Within these guiding principals, the Hahn Administration has launched several initiatives that have resulted in additional housing; we are on pace to provided over 9,000 housing units this year, through the Housing and Business Team we have helped create or retain nearly 4,000 jobs since he took office and to help expand business activity we recently announced a proposal to exempt business taxes for business with gross revenue of $100,000 or less. Additionally, in partnership with Councilmember Gruel and Garcetti, we created the Small and Local Business Advisory Committee, which will helps find ways in which to expand business opportunities to small and local businesses.

We also work in close partnership with the Community Development Department and CRA to create jobs and provide more opportunity. Through CDD, we have a business assistance program that helps small and medium size businesses with their financing needs and technical consulting needs.

Through the CRA, we are focused on building these projects in a way that helps to build and sustain neighborhoods. And through the Development Service Committee, a new group created under Mayor Hahn's leadership that brings together all the departments involved in providing development services or entitlements we are helping to streamline the process to get projects built faster, stimulating the creation of desperately needed new jobs and new investment to the city. It's exciting. We're starting to feel the momentum in the economy and with major projects coming online, such as Marlton Square, North Hollywood Commons, Grand Avenue, LA Live: Convention Hotel, and the Sears project in East LA we're comfortable that we are on pace to help bring jobs and investment to LA through the end of the year and throughout next year.

Speaking on the appointment of three advisors on economic development, Mayor Hahn said, "I now have a dream team to help implement my strategic vision for the city's economy." Could you outline for our readers, the mayor's strategic vision for the city's economic growth?

The new structure of Mayor Hahn's Office of Economic Development put very capable staff members, under my direction, at the helm of each of his economic development priorities, which are economic development, housing, and workforce development. This new structure allows us to more efficiently be able to provide policy direction and support for the City of Los Angeles. Yolanda Chavez, who brings a wealth of experience in both the public and the private sector, manages housing and homeless policy and initiatives. She manages our housing team who works with her to implement policies that the mayor comes up with and I help to formulate.

Mario Marin, who was formally director of small business services, is the executive director for economic development. Given that that's the strength of my background, I work very closely with Mario on implementing and managing some of our large-scale projects, such as LA Live: Convention Hotel, Grand Avenue, and the Sears project on the eastside. We are also doing everything that we can to make LA more business friendly. The recent announcement of the business tax exemption for companies with revenues of a $100,000 or less was supported by the work coming out of Mario's office.

Finally, Bruce Stenslie who was formally the WIB executive director in Ventura County, brings a wealth of experience on workforce development. It's not just about finding people jobs, it's also about literacy and making sure that people can fill out a job application. Bruce is helping us implement a comprehensive approach to dealing with the supply and demand side of workforce development issues. Our team is making things happen for the city of LA.

Also in this issue of MIR is an interview with Councilwoman Wendy Greuel on her efforts to gain consensus for reforms to the city's business tax code. Could you elaborate on what the mayor's position is regarding business tax reform and why it has not been a city priority over the last three years?

Mayor Hahn is very supportive of business tax reform and one of his first acts as Mayor was to provide business tax relief to small businesses. He knows quite intimately the challenges that businesses face in California, both at the local and the state level. And, in this budget climate, the mayor is focused on making prudent and fiscally responsible decisions. With regard to the $100,000 business tax exemption, about 56% of the businesses filing business licenses with the city and have gross revenues of $100,000 or less. The estimates that we are getting from the Department of Finance say that hit on the general fund on an annual basis will be about $4 million. In terms in weighing the cost-benefit, we felt that that was a fiscally prudent approach to helping reform the business tax code. We are fully engaged with Councilwoman Greuel and Councilmember Garcetti in looking at what more we can do with regard to business tax reform.

In TPR, we've repeatedly carried discussions on inclusionary zoning proposals and their potential impact on the city's affordable housing landscape. What's the position of the mayor on the proposals that are now being debated in the Council?

Mayor Hahn's goal is to increase the availability of quality, affordable housing. Regarding inlcusionary zoning, Mayor Hahn is opposed to the proposal currently on the table. We have a $100 million housing trust fund and that effort has helped us double the number of units under construction. One of the reasons the trust fund has been so successful is because, Mayor Hahn brought together housing advocates and developers to make it happen. We want to maintain the momentum be have created as it relates to housing production. Our next step should be to continue to provide incentives to building housing where we need it most, along commercial or transit corridors. These kinds of mixed-use projects will not only provide more housing, but will also help reduce traffic. Mayor Hahn wants to make sure we are moving forward to increase housing production and not adopting polices that will start to trend down the progress we've made since he's taken office.

Let's move on to one of the latest debates in the Council, an ordinance restricting big box development within the city boundaries. Can you articulate what the mayor's position is on this ordinance?

The mayor is very supportive of that proposal, which recently passed in the Planning Commission by a 5-0 vote. It should be coming to the City Council for a vote sometime in August. Several months ago, we were in a very different place when we were talking about a prohibition on superstores in economic incentives zones that are 100,000 square feet with 10% or more of floor space dedicated to taxable sales. However, through listening to community concerns that surfaced during the Inglewood debate, it became clear to us that many community members wanted the option of allowing superstores within their neighborhoods but also wanted an opportunity to weigh in on both the land use and economic impacts of these stores. The City has now proposed a discretionary approval process with a requirement that the developer submit an analysis that the economic impact these types of stores could have on neighborhoods within economic incentive zones. Additionally, we feel that the economic impact assessment is a sound measure of public policy to identify and root out any unintended negative consequences of big box development on increased traffic, existing land use, business and employment opportunities. We do not believe, as some have proposed, that this implies an anti-business agenda. Quite the opposite, it is a careful look at likely impacts, reasonably assuring that, on net, such development is likely to improve and not harm business and employment

Renata, how a city deals with population growth pressures in an already built-out metropolis is challenging for any civic leadership. Can you share how, as a deputy mayor with oversight over development, the mayor is balancing demands for neighborhood livability with the loud demands for increased housing supply?

We strike that balance by supporting policies that help to achieve both ends. For example, the residential advisory services ordinance would create a viable community forum for residential development on commercial corridors. We're also supportive of the new townhouse ordinance that would allow opportunities to build infill townhouse developments in a much more comprehensive way. We also support development products that adhere to smart growth principles-Playa Vista can be used as an example in that regard.

One of your stellar work experiences prior to joining the mayor's office was with New Schools-Better Neighborhoods, which has advocated that school districts, cities and neighborhood leaders better and more collaboratively plan how best to invest $10-14 billion of state and local school bonds in our inner city and inner suburban neighborhoods. You have spoken out in the past about the downside of silo-like planning by school districts and public agencies. Now that you're deputy mayor, have you seen evidence that we're making progress in breaking down those silos; that the city and school district are doing a better job master planning our new school bond investments to achieve healthier and more vital neighborhoods?

It is very difficult to develop joint-development opportunities with the school district and the city and development entities. The Gratts project in the Westlake neighborhood is one example of a successful collaboration among those parties.

A site near Broadway/Manchester is another great example of trying to break the silo thinking, as the CRA has been working for a number of years on a seven-acre development site at the Southwest corner of Broadway and Manchester. The school district also happened to be looking for a site within that area and had initially considered the exact same parcel being evaluated by the CRA. Through collaborations with the Community Redevelopment Agency and the city, we were able to expand the district's search area to consider other plans for development in this community. We are now looking at about a four-block area at the intersection of Broadway/Manchester, working with the school district, the Housing Department, the CRA, and the Mayor's Office to see if we can't do a comprehensive development that will provide a multitude of services to this neighborhood. One difference that is helping to break this silo thinking is Mayor Hahn's Economic Development Cabinet that was established earlier this year. This is a group that I Chair and is comprised of General Manager of Departments involved in citywide economic development issues. Through this cabinet we are better coordinating large-scale community projects like Broadway and Manchester. I'm looking forward to seeing more collaborative work like the Broadway/Manchester development as the school district, the CRA, the Housing Department, and other public agencies push forward with their agendas.

Will we look backwards ten years from now and say we missed an opportunity to engage the school district and its resources in the effort to build livable neighborhoods?

I hope not. The school district is moving at light speed to address the huge need for additional seats. Unfortunately, the speed at which they are moving doesn't always allow for collaboration. Where possible, we're trying to get in on the ground floor of some of these school developments so that we can discuss how best to leverage the project to meet a variety of the neighborhood' s needs.

There is a site in North Hollywood where the school district and the CRA, along with the Mayor's Office and the Council Office, sat down and talked about what that site's value as a school development versus another use, such as residential, retail or commercial.

At least while I'm here, we're getting the parties to sit down at a table and engage in these types of dialogues. So if we can have a handful of examples to show what's possible, it's going to make it easier for those that come after me to do the same thing. It's an experiment and it's yet to be unproven. But I think, we are moving in the right direction.