In 2013, the City of Hermosa Beach, CA, a small coastal community in Los Angeles, hired Raimi + Associates to comprehensively update the City’s General Plan and Local Coastal Plan. The Plan focused on maintaining the quality of life in this quintessential small Southern California beach town while allowing for targeted growth in certain parts of the City. The plan also includes ambitious sustainability goals such as a desire for carbon neutrality. The also included an integrated Local Coastal Plan through a grant secured by
the team from the California Coastal Commission.

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Throughout the process, the R+A team led an extensive community engagement effort that included interactive workshops, walking tours, pop-up workshops and intercept surveys. The final plan is visually interesting with info-graphics, metrics to measure success and an on-line e-plan that organizes information by user type, interest or topic. As a result of it's innovative approach, the General Plan won multiple awards including the 2018 APA Sustainable Communities Division Award for Excellence.