Saving industrial land

Despite objections from some City Council members, the Los Angeles Planning Commission gave its blessing Thursday to a policy that would block developers who want to build condos and big-box stores on prime industrial land. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

About 8 percent of the city's land is zoned for industrial use, which could include manufacturing, laboratory research, and film and television production.

While the city has had an industrial land use policy on the books for more than a decade, city leaders have rarely enforced it. Now that developers are increasingly seeking to bulldoze warehouses and manufacturing operations in downtown L.A., Hollywood and other hot residential real estate markets, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and some business groups are trying to stop the conversion of industrial land.