How to file an appeal if you think the city skimped out on a road safety upgrade

L.A.'s plan to implement a voter-approved measure requiring the city to make mobility and safety upgrades when doing routine maintenance work on certain streets went into effect Monday.

The plan includes an appeals process. So if you’re a Los Angeles resident and think the city didn’t install Measure HLA-mandated upgrades where it should have, you can now make your case to local officials. Here’s the context you need to know and instructions on how to file an appeal.

Quick HLA refresher

The city approved Mobility Plan 2035 in 2015. That plan identified networks of streets to improve with protected bike lanes, pedestrian signal improvements, bus lanes and other enhancements.

The goal of Measure HLA is to speed up progress on those improvements. It also requires the city to implement Mobility Plan upgrades when it repaves at least one-eighth of a mile of a street specified in one of the networks.

Voters approved Measure HLA in March 2024, and it became city law a month later.

For more than a year since then, L.A. City Council and the City Attorney’s Office have been developing a plan that guides how the city will implement Measure HLA.

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass approved that plan last month and it went into effect Aug. 18.

Why is that plan important?

Most of the plan mirrors the ballot measure voters passed. It includes details about how different city departments — from the Departments of Transportation and Public Works to LAPD and LAFD — work together on street improvement projects.

The implementation plan also lays out rules about Measure HLA’s applicability, meaning the city can claim it doesn’t need to include mobility upgrades when working on a Mobility Plan street.

To account for any disagreements over exemptions, the plan includes an “administrative appeals process.”

That process outlines how L.A. residents can explain to the Board of Public Works how they think the city acted out of compliance with Measure HLA.

The appeals process is mandatory before residents resort to legal challenges and wasn’t detailed in the ballot measure voters approved.

Here’s how to make your case

Dashboards, buttons and appeals — there are a lot of parts to this, so stick with us.

The city reports Mobility Plan street projects on an online dashboard. If the city is claiming a project is exempt from the bike, pedestrian or transit improvements otherwise required by Measure HLA, it will include its reasoning on this dashboard. You can view the dashboard here, and read more details about it here.

If you disagree with the city’s reasoning and believe the work does trigger Measure HLA improvements, you’ll need to file an appeal no later than 30 days after the project is published on the dashboard.

On the bottom-left corner of the dashboard, there’s a clickable button that will take you to an online form where you can detail your appeal. In addition to personal and contact details, you can expect to fill out the following information:

• The name and location of the project that’s the subject of the appeal
• The reason for the appeal
• What Mobility Plan upgrades you think were left out
• The legal and factual bases for your appeal

Some early appeals take issue with resurfacing work on Mobility Plan streets that aren’t reflected on the dashboard, so it’s unclear whether they’ll be accepted by the Board of Public Works. Joe Linton, in his personal capacity and not in his role as editor of Streetsblog LA, is tracking those appeals on his blog.

That the appeals process only applies to projects on the dashboard is a contention in and of itself. Streets For All, the group that spearheaded Measure HLA, said in a July newsletter that the dashboard is “lacking and out of compliance.”

What happens after I appeal?:

The implementation plan specifies that the Board of Public Works has to consider appeals within 60 days of the deadline to file an appeal. If it needs more time, the Board of Public Works can tack on an extension of up to 15 days.

Ten days before the hearing, people who sent in appeals will be notified.

Any decisions made by the board on an appeal will be reported on the dashboard.