Brian Rosenstein
Los Angeles City Planning Commissioner, Business Leader, Philanthropist, and fourth-generation Angeleno.
Brian works 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.
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? → How can residents weigh in? →
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 Brian stands
Brian believes planning should listen first, make housing more affordable, and help longtime residents, working families, and small businesses remain part of Los Angeles.
Read Brian's priorities and public record →All Los Angeles City Planning Commissioners are required to file an annual Statement of Economic Interests (Form 700) with the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and California Fair Political Practices Commission.
“I believe a pro-housing and pro-affordable housing approach to planning is important to meet the current and long-term needs of our City while at the same time being business friendly to help strengthen our City’s economic base.”
Community & philanthropy
Brian Rosenstein has served and continues to serve as a steward for some of the most impactful non-profit institutions focused on helping youth and families of Los Angeles.
Non-Profit Leadership
- Board Member & Vice-President, Wilbur May Foundation
- Board of Trustees, The Archer School for Girls
- Advisory Board Member, Venice Family Clinic
- Former Board Member & Executive Committee Member, Los Angeles LGBT Center
- Former Board Member, Temple Emanuel Beverly Hills
- Former Board Member, Beverly Hills 9/11 Memorial
- Former Board Member & Treasurer, Beverly Hills CPR
Through the Wilbur May Foundation, where Brian serves as a Board Member & Vice-President, May & Rosenstein Family giving is directed to the people and institutions that need it most across Los Angeles — measured in outcomes, not dollar figures.
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, May & Rosenstein Family giving centers on housing, health care, and services for people in crisis — founding and sustaining the institutions that deliver them across the region.
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
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.
A long-term owner-operator
Brian Rosenstein's career operating real estate across the country provides practical grounding for his land-use work and a discipline of responsible, long-term ownership rather than short-term trades.
Chairman & CEO, Brookhill Corp.
Brian 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
Brian holds a California broker's license — the credential behind decades of acquisition, operation, and asset management.
Earlier roles
Brian's prior experience with New Pacific Realty and Keiler Holdings built the operating background that informs his work today.
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.
A Los Angeles family
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Brian Rosenstein is the fourth generation of the May family, whose May Company and Robinsons-May department stores were fixtures of Los Angeles for much of the twentieth century and whose family and foundations have supported the city's civic and cultural institutions for generations.
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 →May 2026Why I'm Standing With Karen Bass
Why Brian is backing Mayor Karen Bass for reelection to lead Los Angeles's recovery and renewal.
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 →Selected press coverage
Brian Rosenstein'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 Brian should be playing in this city — he would like to hear from you.