Following fires and a tsunami, a push to force L.A. to finally analyze evacuation routes

Los Angeles Times

31-07-2025

After an investigation from The Times found L.A. city had failed to publicly comply with a 2019 law requiring it to analyze the capacity, safety and viability of its evacuation routes, Councilmember Traci Park filed a motion that would force the city to comply.
'The Palisades fire underscored just how vulnerable our hillside communities remain,' the motion states. The fire — along with Tuesday's Tsunami Advisory — 'reaffirms the urgent need to comply with [the law] and update the City's emergency planning to reflect current realities.'
Former state legislator Marc Levine wrote the 2019 law, Assembly Bill 747, after hearing the horrific scenes of gridlock on the streets of Paradise, Calif., over the radio during the 2018 Camp fire.
The law requires local governments to include these evacuation analyses in the the safety element of their general plans, which serve as the blueprint for long-term development of cities and counties. Yet, L.A. city's safety element includes no such analysis.
'The fact that local government leaders would not do as much as they can to protect human life and safety is just shocking to me,' Levine said earlier this month, when learning of both L.A. City's and L.A. County's limited efforts to analyze their evacuation routes.
In a statement to The Times, the city's planning department, responsible for writing and updating the safety element, said it did not publicize evacuation routes since 'large urban cities such as the City of Los Angeles are high profile targets for terrorist attacks.'
Levine categorized the response as a 'dubious claim.' In a statement to The Times, he said, 'It is a mystery how hiding evacuation route capacity and viability can save lives when community members are fleeing a natural disaster.'
The planning department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the motion.
Park's motion, if adopted, would require the planning department to report back to the city council within 30 days listing all evacuation routes in high-risk areas within Park's district, including an assessment of the routes' capacities, potential bottlenecks, physical hazards, viability under emergency scenarios including wildfire and tsunamis, and strategies for mitigating traffic issues.
Park's district is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, encompassing the hillside, brush-filled communities of the Pacific Palisades and Brentwood as well as the coastal neighborhoods of Venice and Playa del Rey.
The city has publicly provided tsunami evacuations routes — identifying coastal routes to get residents away from the ocean — but they do not include an analysis of traffic conditions in such a scenario, nor do they include routes for other possible disasters including wildfire and earthquakes.
The motion would also require the planning department to provide a timeline and funding strategy for completing any remaining AB 747 requirements.
Councilmember Park was not immediately available to respond to a request for comment.
This is a developing story. Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.