Los Angeles city officials voted Friday morning to renew its contract with FilmLA for another five years, despite advocacy groups pushing for reforms to the city’s permitting process.
The city’s complicated and expensive permitting process has received a fair amount of criticism this year amid discussions about how to revive California’s film and television industry, which has dwindled at the hands of runaway production over the last decade. Stay in LA, an organization committed to encouraging productions back to the area, has been among those advocating for reducing “onerous regulations and permitting” as well other “unnecessary fees, inconsistent safety requirements.”
Advocacy groups, as well as some lawmakers, had hoped to get those changes made to the contract before it was approved by the L.A. Board of Public Works. They had instead proposed that the city extend its current contract for six more months, as LA County recently did, to allow time for negotiations on amendments.
Councilmember Adrin Nazarian bemoaned the vote shortly after the decision was made Friday, saying the group of local lawmakers faced “two unacceptable choices.”
“On the one hand we can renew a five-year contract without any time for review or negotiation. On the other hand, we can allow the contract to lapse on July 1, leaving us without any legally constituted permitting authority for film and television production in the City of Los Angeles,” his statement read. “The only legally available alternative would be to allow the contract to lapse, but that would make it impossible for any production to be permitted while we renegotiate the contract with Film LA. Such a lapse in permitting would put a hold on all production in the city, doing irreparable damage to an industry that is already in crisis.”
Nazarian says FilmLA has committed to modifying the new contract with the city, which begins on July 1, within the first year. He intends to offer suggestions for potential amendments, writing, “The thousands of Angelenos who rely on the film and television industry for their livelihood will be watching carefully.”
Stay in LA proposed a number of amendments to the FilmLA contract, including reducing requirements of public safety personnel required at shoots; offering waived or reduced fees for utilizing public property as shoot locations; creating a pool of film-certified public safety officers available for rates competitive with other cities that are currently taking production away from L.A.; identifying and enforcing the price gouging of crew parking and base camps for film shoots; and streamlining the film permitting review process which includes staffing and resources necessary across all departments involved and revising the stage certification process that allow for more stages to certify and limit additional expenses.
The decision to renew the FilmLA contract comes about a month after Mayor Karen Bass issued a directive aimed at undoing some of the red tape around local production. She instructed city officials to “cut regulations and streamline processes” like making iconic locations like the Griffith Observatory, Port of LA, and the Central Library cheaper and easier to shoot at.
Bass also suggested instituting a “proactive, film-friendly approach to communication” between productions and the city, particularly on matters that could impact filming schedules.
As L.A. looks for local solutions, the response to runaway production has extended all the way to the White House after Jon Voight presented a plan to Donald Trump aimed at enticing production back from overseas. There has been no word on that after Trump floated the idea tariffs on films shot outside of the U.S., which drew a largely negative response from the production community.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has also led the charge on increasing domestic production, and his proposal to expand the state’s Film & TV Tax Credit Program is also currently making its way through the Legislature. The updates to the program appear poised to be signed into law quite soon, though the expanded funding is still in flux. The mention of allocating $750M annually to the program was removed from the bills but it remains in the state budget for now. Lawmakers have until the start of the fiscal year on July 1 to finalize the budget.
