Are you interested in forming a Neighborhood Council in your community? If so, we welcome your participation and look forward to working with you. The first step is to check if there is already a Neighborhood Council servicing your community by clicking Where Is My Neighborhood Council? in the right hand column. If there isn’t, you and your interested community stakeholders will need to prepare an application to go before the Board of Neighborhood Commissioners for certification. A community stakeholder is defined as those who live, work or own property in the neighborhood and also those who declare a stake in the neighborhood and affirm the factual basis for it. Some examples of factual basis stakeholders are people who frequent a restaurant, coffee shop, gas station or other businesses in a neighborhood.
The Neighborhood Council certification process takes between 6 months and a year depending on how much time you and other community stakeholders can dedicate.
Generally, the requirements for forming a Neighborhood Council include:
- Having no less than 20,000 residents within the desired Neighborhood Council boundary though exceptions do apply.
- Outreaching to the community to collect between 200 to 500 signatures from community stakeholders within the proposed Neighborhood Council boundaries.
- Preparing the proposed Neighborhood Council bylaws.
- Submitting the proposed Neighborhood Council financial accounting system.
Our staff will be happy to assist in the formation of your Neighborhood Council so please don’t hesitate to contact us at (213) 485-1360 or email us at NCSupport@lacity.org.