LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Mayor Eric Garcetti Tuesday announced the first Transportation Technology Innovation Zone in Los Angeles, an area where innovators can test their transit solutions.

Located in the Canoga Park and Woodland Hills areas of the west San Fernando Valley, the zone is a product of a partnership between Garcetti and City Councilman Bob Blumenfield designed to transform Warner Center into mobility-innovation and workforce-development hubs.

"Transportation and technology each have the ability to connect communities, create jobs and contribute to progress on sustainability, equity and economic growth, and Los Angeles takes pride in serving as a testing ground for dynamic and innovative mobility solutions," Garcetti said.

The zone will unite local businesses, workers and inventors and serve as a model for more zones that could come online across Los Angeles, the mayor said.

"There's no place in L.A. as perfect as the Warner Center to test innovative transportation technology," Blumenfield said. "Since we rolled out the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan, the city's boldest and greenest specific plan, the Warner Center has become the focus of intense residential and commercial development."

The zone is one of the flagship programs of Urban Movement Labs, the transportation solutions accelerator initiated by Garcetti in November 2019.

Through its Ideas Accelerator initiative, Garcetti said UML officials met with community members, business owners and innovators at Warner Center last winter to design and choose the zone's first pilot project: a zero- emissions, last-mile delivery service that connects individuals homebound by the COVID-19 pandemic to food from local businesses.

The second pilot project is expected to launch in the spring, featuring mini-mobility hubs throughout the Warner Center campus.

"L.A. is at the forefront of the mobility revolution in our country and across the globe," said Lilly Shoup, the interim executive director of UML.

On its one-year anniversary, UML became a standalone not-for-profit organization. The Mayor's Office, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, the Port of Los Angeles and Los Angeles World Airports will continue to serve as strategic advisers and key partners to UML, Garcetti said.

MoceanLab, Tortoise and Automotus have joined founding private-sector partners Avis Budget Group, Lyft, Waymo, Verizon and L.A. Cleantech Incubator to assist as well.

UML's newly appointed board includes experts from the mobility innovation industry, such as Ashley Hand, co-founder of Cityfi; Justine Johnson, mobility strategist at Ford Smart Mobility; Veronica Siranosian, vice president at AECOM Ventures; Francis Pollara, director of strategy and development at UML; and Julia Thayne, the associate director of Mobility Innovation at Garcetti's office.

More information about Urban Movement Labs is at www.urbanmovementlabs.com.