LA Mayor Karen Bass Issues Executive Order to Streamline Film Permitting Process
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has issued an executive order calling for changes to city rules for on-location film and TV shoots in an effort to reduce costs and permit processing times for productions.
Bass signed the executive order at the SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Tuesday alongside city councilmember Adrin Nazarian and multiple Hollywood union officials, including SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles local president Jodi Long.
'The City is taking bold action to support our legacy industry,' Bass said. 'Keeping entertainment production in LA means keeping good-paying jobs in L.A., and that's what we are fighting for.'
'We've allowed the industry to slip away from us…impacting the industry here, impacting families here, as well as ruining the fabric of what the industry brought,' Nazarian said. 'We cannot allow the heart of Los Angeles to leave Los Angeles.'
The order comes three weeks after the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion calling on city agencies to report back on ways to reduce permitting fees, which include feeds to fire and safety officials as well as multiple fees for road inspection and closures, among others.
Staffers for Nazarian, who first introduced the motion, tell TheWrap that they are pushing for agencies to provide information from the report back to the city council in the weeks ahead with the hopes that Bass' executive order will create a greater sense of urgency.
The executive order and the council motion will look to allow productions to bypass fees where they do not apply, such as fees for firefighters to be present on set that can be lifted when pyrotechnics and other potential fire hazards are not being used.
Under Bass' executive order, only one city staffer will be required to be present on shoots. The order also seeks to expedite permit processing and lower costs for high-demand locations such as the Griffith Observatory, the Port of Los Angeles and Central Library.
It also orders the city to look for 'assets' that could be used as shooting locations and parking for productions and calls on police and fire officials to meet with FilmLA and other entertainment industry organizations monthly to solve 'any ongoing issues' that are hampering film shoots.
Bass says the motion will encourage a 'proactive film friendly approach to communication between city departments and production, including the communication of upcoming infrastructure projects that could impact filming schedule.'
'I will tell you that each item in the executive directive are items that have been raised specifically by the industry, that they have come before the mayor's office and members of city council, and said, you know, there are certain obstacles that we face right here, and City Hall can make a difference. So today represents the beginning of that difference,' she said.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Sacramento are working on a major expansion to the California Film & TV Tax Credit Program, which would include loosening eligiblity requirements and raising the program's cap from $330 million to $750 million. Gov. Gavin Newsom did not lower the proposed cap raise in his revised budget proposal earlier this month despite a growth in the expected state deficit to $12 billion.
The post LA Mayor Karen Bass Issues Executive Order to Streamline Film Permitting Process appeared first on TheWrap.
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