Brian Rosenstein
Los Angeles City Planning Commissioner, Philanthropist, Business Leader, and fourth-generation Angeleno.
I work at the intersection of housing, land use, and the civic life of Los Angeles — as an appointed City Planning Commissioner, a long-term real estate owner-operator, and a longtime supporter of the institutions that hold this city together.
A Los Angeles family
A fourth-generation Angeleno and lifelong Democrat, raised in a family with a long tradition of civic and philanthropic life in Los Angeles — a heritage that informs the work but doesn't stand in for it. What matters is the record: decisions made, institutions supported, and neighborhoods served. Brian lives in Cheviot Hills, on the Westside of Los Angeles, with his wife and two children.
Public service & civic roles
Civic Leadership across Los Angeles, focused on planning, land use, and how a city actually grows and governs itself. What does a planning commission do? →
Commissioner, Los Angeles City Planning Commission
Appointed by Mayor Karen Bass and unanimously confirmed by City Council to help decide the land-use and entitlement questions that shape housing supply, neighborhood character, and growth across the City of Los Angeles.
Chair & Vice-Chair (former), Beverly Hills Planning Commission
Led the commission responsible for development review, zoning, and long-range planning in the City of Beverly Hills.
Commissioner (former), Beverly Hills Traffic & Parking Commission
Early civic work grounded in the practical questions of mobility, circulation, and how residents move through a city.
Where I stand
Housing we can actually afford.
When SB 79 came before the Commission, I supported a phased approach — Option C1 — rather than an all-or-nothing vote. The state is right that we have to build more, especially near transit. But how we build matters: getting the sequencing wrong turns good policy into a backlash. My job was to find the version that moves us forward and holds up.
Planning that listens first.
Every project is somebody's neighborhood. I've sat on both sides of the dais long enough to know that the decisions that last are the ones where residents were heard before the vote, not after.
A city that works for the people who built it.
Small businesses, longtime residents, working families — the people who make Los Angeles what it is are too often the ones planning decisions overlook. I keep coming back to a simple test: does this help them stay?
For conflicts-of-interest disclosure and recusal policy as a Commissioner: Transparency & Conflicts of Interest →
Essays on housing & land use
First-hand perspective from inside the planning process — how to build more housing, how land-use decisions actually get made, and how the city can grow without losing what makes its neighborhoods worth living in.
What Is a City Planning Commission?
A plain-language guide to what the Commission actually does — and why its decisions shape how Los Angeles grows.
Read essay →April 2026Solving California's Housing Crisis Without Losing What Makes Neighborhoods Special
The affordability crisis was decades in the making. A path that builds more homes without erasing neighborhood character.
Read essay →April 2026How AB 2097 & the Density Bonus Are Reshaping LA
Two policy levers are quietly changing what gets built across the city. What they do, and what they mean.
Read essay →April 2026The Future of Urban Planning in Los Angeles
Where planning in Los Angeles is headed — and what it means for the next generation of housing.
Read essay →May 2026Why I'm Standing With Karen Bass
As a lifelong Angeleno, why I am backing Mayor Karen Bass for reelection to lead Los Angeles's recovery and renewal.
Read essay →I’ve spent my career thinking about housing — how it’s built, how it’s owned, how it shapes the lives of the families who live in it. Los Angeles is the city that raised me, and right now it’s a city that working families can’t afford to live in, and where too many of our neighbors are sleeping outside. That’s not the LA I grew up in, and it’s not the LA we have to settle for. Public service is how I’m trying to be part of the answer.
Community & philanthropy
Through the Wilbur May Foundation, where Brian serves as a Board Member & Vice-President, family giving is directed to the people and institutions that need it most across Los Angeles — measured in outcomes, not dollar figures.
Non-Profit Leadership
- Board Member & Vice-President, Wilbur May Foundation
- The Archer School for Girls — Board of Trustees
Supported Non-Profit Organizations
- Cedars-Sinai
- LA LGBT Center — Anita May Rosenstein Campus
- Project Angel Food
- Venice Family Clinic
- Public Counsel
- LACER After School Program
- Renown Children's Hospital
- Crohn's & Colitis Foundation
The Foundation's most visible impact in Los Angeles is the Anita May Rosenstein Campus at the Los Angeles LGBT Center — a landmark facility named for Brian's mother that brought affordable homes, shelter beds, and services together on one block.
Beyond the campus, the family's giving centers on housing, health care, and services for people in crisis — founding and sustaining the institutions that deliver them across the region.
A long-term owner-operator
A career operating real estate across the country — the practical grounding behind the land-use work, and a discipline of responsible, long-term ownership rather than short-term trades.
Chairman & CEO, Brookhill Corp.
Leads Brookhill, a Los Angeles–based real estate firm founded in 1977, which owns and operates a diversified national portfolio across multifamily, industrial, retail, and storage in 15 states. Visit Brookhill →
Licensed California real estate broker
Holds a California broker's license — the credential behind decades of acquisition, operation, and asset management.
Earlier roles
Prior experience with New Pacific Realty and Keiler Holdings, building the operating background that informs today's work.
Good planning is not about saying yes or no. It is about working with residents and businesses together to determine what’s best for the city now and in the future.
Selected press coverage
Brian's civic service, community philanthropy, and business leadership — as covered across Los Angeles media.
L.A. City Council confirms two new members to City Planning Commission
The City Council confirms Brian's appointment — made by Mayor Karen Bass — to the Los Angeles City Planning Commission.
Read article →Crain Currency · May 2026Family offices pivot to niche real estate as apartment returns shrink
Brookhill and family-office investors move into industrial and niche real estate as apartment yields compress.
Read article →Los Angeles Times · Jan 2012Beverly Hills takes steps to preserve architectural treasures
Beverly Hills moves to protect its architectural treasures during Brian's years on the city's Planning Commission.
Read article →ArchDailyLos Angeles LGBT Center — Anita May Rosenstein Campus
An architectural profile of the intergenerational campus the family's landmark gift helped build.
Read article →The Advocate · May 2014Los Angeles LGBT Center Receives Historic Gift
The historic lead gift that launched the campaign for the Anita May Rosenstein Campus.
Read article →Get in touch
Whether you want to weigh in on a project in your neighborhood, share what your community needs, or you think there's a bigger role I should be playing in this city — I'd like to hear from you.