New Accessory Dwelling Units can be built in most Hillside neighborhood around Los Angeles and conversion ADUs can be built in all Hillside areas if they meet certain criteria, according to a draft ordinance supported by the City Planning Commission at its hearing last week.
 
The ordinance – which still must get City Council and mayoral support – would allow ADUs in all designated Hillside areas of Los Angeles except where a Hillside Construction Regulation (HCR) Supplemental Use District (SUD) has been established. Even then, ADUs could be permitted in HCR SUDs if the ADU is proposed for a lawfully existing detached accessory structure or will be fully contained within a lawfully existing single-family dwelling.
 
The unanimous vote last week by the CPC was a victory for those who believe ADUs are an important option in the city’s quest to address its housing shortage. Advocates of the draft ordinance said that homeowners in Hillside areas should be allowed to add second residences such as granny flats or servants’ quarters just as homeowners in other parts of the city are allowed. Opponents of the proposal said that adding additional residences to Hillside areas will exacerbate those neighborhoods’ fire and safety issues.
 
The ADU ordinance voted on by the City Planning Commission still has to be reviewed by the City Attorney’s Office and a final, draft ordinance prepared and submitted for City Council review. The City Council’s Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee is expected to vote on the City Attorney’s draft ordinance first. Once approved by PLUM, the ordinance will go to the City Council for a vote. If approved by the City Council, it will then be forwarded to Mayor Garcetti for his signature. The entire process from this point forward typically takes several months and could take a year or more if PLUM committee members send the draft back to City Planning with requested changes.
 
In the meantime, the current ADU rules are in effect. They were written by the state and became effective on Jan. 1, 2017. The new city ADU ordinance – if approved by the City Council and signed by the mayor – will replace the state rules.
 
The ordinance approved by the CPC can be found at this link: 
 
Approved ADU Ordinance (pdf)
 
The current ADU rules can be found at this link:
 
Current ADU Rules (pdf)

Previously on LandUseLA: Planning Commission to Consider New ADU Rules

http://www.landusela.com/blog/planning-commission-to-consider-new-adu-rules

The Los Angeles City Planning Department recently announced it will soon correct numerous mistakes in its Transit-Oriented Communities maps and related designations on the department’s online information site, ZIMAS. The department announced that these mistakes could “severely impact” future TOC projects, especially in the Valley and in West Los Angeles.

The mistakes primarily involve properties that were erroneously labeled as eligible for certain TOC incentives due to their locations near bus stops. It turns out, these locations do not meet the “Major Bus Stop” requirements in the TOC Guidelines. As a result, many properties will have their Tier determination downgraded or could even be eliminated from TOC eligibility altogether.

In addition, the department announced it will soon measure the required 750-ft. distance for a Tier 4 property located near a metro rail station/Rapid Bus stop only from the nearest metro rail station entrance and not from either the station entrance or nearest Rapid Bus stop at the same intersection. This is expected to impact additional, potential project sites.

The TOC incentives were developed pursuant to Measure JJJ, the measure passed by city voters a few years ago to encourage development of more affordable housing in high-transit areas. The department uses tiers (one through four) to designate the level of incentives and additional housing that is available to a project site. The higher the number, the more incentives.

Revised TOC maps are expected to be released this month, but the department didn’t specifically announce a release date.

Planning staff said these changes will not impact TOC applications that have already been accepted for processing, and that they will honor any TOC application request based on the current map as long at the TOC pre-submittal application is submitted prior to release of the revised map and the fees have been paid.
So any property owners or developers who are considering a TOC project should submit the TOC verification application as soon as possible.

For help with a TOC submittal, please contact Chris Parker at Chris@pccla.com or 818-591-9309.

One of the most successful – and controversial – methods of adding housing to Los Angeles will be on the agenda of Thursday’s City Planning Commission meeting, the latest step in the city developing its own rules for Accessory Dwelling Units, or ADUs.
 
The focus of Thursday’s hearing is updated recommendations and options from the City Planning Department, as instructed by the Planning Commissioners at a hearing earlier this fall. The Planning Department’s recommendations include:

• Allowing ADUs in Hillside areas by either allowing them in all Hillside areas that are not in a designated Hillside Construction Regulations Supplemental Use District (HCR-SUD) or by allowing them throughout the Hillside areas but only if one of the following three criteria are met:
  

1. The lot is located within 1⁄4-mile of a public transportation stop;
   
2. The lot fronts a paved vehicular roadway that is 24 feet wide from the subject property until it reaches the nearest publicly-maintained road; or
   
3. One parking space is provided onsite for the ADU.

 

• Not providing a guaranteed minimum for ADUs, meaning that the Residential Floor Area (RFA) for any ADU plus all other structures on the subject property must collectively adhere to the RFA limit per the lot’s underlying zoning.

 The most significant of the department’s recommendations is the additional options for ADU development in Hillside areas. Whether to allow ADUs in the city’s Hillside areas has been the most contentious issue as the city has wrestled with developing its ADU policy. The city’s current rules allow ADUs in Hillside areas under the same limits and restrictions as any other parts of the city because the city’s current ADU rules are mandated by the state.
 
But many residents and homeowners groups in Hillside areas have urged the city to disallow ADUs in their neighborhoods with the new rules that are being crafted. These Hillside residents say that their streets are too narrow and parking too scarce to allow additional residential units in their neighborhoods.
 
Those who support ADUs in Hillside areas say that homeowners in those areas should have the same rights to add granny flats and other small living spaces to their lots as other homeowners around the city have. It has also been argued that as the city increases its density and develops more housing options, all portions of the city should densify not just the flatlands.
 
The HCR-SUD areas are relatively new and currently only cover three Hillside neighborhoods: Bel-Air, Laurel Canyon and the Bird Streets (north of Sunset Boulevard and east of the City of Beverly Hills). Additional Hillside areas could be designated HCR-SUDs through a City Planning process that can take a year or more to complete.
 
The CPC is expected to take testimony Thursday and vote on the recommendations made by City Planning staff. Presuming the Commissioners vote to recommend approval of new ADU rules, it will likely be still several months before the rules take effect, and that assumes that both the City Council and the mayor support the ADU rules as well.
 
The CPC's decision could greatly impact what has in less than 2 years become one of the most successful programs in Los Angeles to add lower-cost housing to a city that is woefully under-housed. Since the state-mandated ADU rules went into effect on Jan. 1, 2017, the city has received more than 7,700 permit applications for ADUs compared to 536 applications in 2015 and 2016 combined.

- Chris Parker
Chris@PCClA.com
818-591-9309

The current draft ordinance can be found here:
 
Current Draft Ordinance (pdf)
 
The City Planning Department staff report can be found here:
 
City Planning Department Staff Report (pdf)
 
And here’s the agenda for Thursday’s CPC meeting (the ADU case is item #8):
 
Agenda for Thursday’s CPC Meeting (pdf)

The City Council is expected to approve today (April 11) an ordinance that would reduce the allowable floor area and grading quantities for single-family homes in the “Bird Streets” and Laurel Canyon areas of the Hollywood Hills.

The Hillside Construction Regulations (HCR) being considered today are similar to the limitations that were approved by the City Council for the Bel-Air area last year. If approved, this Special Use District (SUD) would limit by-right grading to 6,000 cubic yards on standard Hillside streets (4,500 CY for substandard Hillside streets) and 17,500 square feet of Residential Floor Area (RFA). Any project proposing more grading and/or more floor area would require a discretionary approval from City Planning, which would entail a case filing and at least one public hearing.

The ordinance also imposes several conditions to all hauling projects (regardless of size) that are usually required only for projects that request more than 1,000 cubic yards of hauling.

The area covered by this ordinance is north of Sunset Boulevard, east of the City of Beverly Hills, west of Nichols Canyon, and south of Mulholland Drive/Woodrow Wilson Drive. 

The City Planning Commission unanimously approved the draft ordinance on Jan. 25. The Bel Air Beverly Crest Neighborhood Council also voted unanimously to recommend support of the ordinance.

If the City Council approves the ordinance today with 9 or more “ayes,” as expected, it will go to the Mayor’s office for his signature (which is also expected).

Typically, it takes 6 or more weeks from City Council approval to effective date of an ordinance, which would mean these rules would take effect in late May/early June. However, if the City Council adds an Urgency Clause to the ordinance at today’s vote, it could be the law of the land in a week.

City Clerk's Council File on Bird Street/Laurel Canyon HCR:

https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=16-1472-S2

The City Council approved on Wednesday the draft ordinance that assigns a new R1 variety to 15 neighborhoods around Los Angeles (mostly Westside). That means that the changes to the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, Baseline Mansionization Ordinance and R1 Variations Ordinance have now all been approved by the City Council and await the Mayor’s signature.
 
Mayor Garcetti has until Monday (March 13th) to sign the BHO/BMO update, although he could sign it as early as today. Once he does sign these new ordinances, the City Clerk must prepared and publish them. Because the ordinances were passed with urgency clauses, the ordinances take effect on the day they are published.
 
Based upon previous Planning Department ordinances that were passed with urgency clauses, that means the new BHO/BMO/R1 rules could take effect as early as Monday if Mayor Garcetti signs them today. If he waits until Monday to sign them, then it could be Wednesday (March 15th) or Thursday (March 16th) before they take effect.
 
Here’s a link to the BHO/BMO update that was passed by the City Council:
 
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2014/14-0656_misc_3-1-17.pdf
 
And here is the neighborhood-by-neighborhood changes to the R1 zone that was approved by the City Council yesterday:
 
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2016/16-1470_ord_draft_2-14-2017.pdf

The City Council voted unanimously today to approve the proposed changes to the Baseline Hillside Ordinance (BHO), Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (BMO) and new R1 Variation Zones. However, the third vote of the day didn’t garner enough votes to skip the second reading (see explanation below) so all of the ordinances will return to the City Council on March 8 for a second reading, the City Clerk announced.
 
That means the earliest the new ordinances will probably take effect is Monday, March 13. And it could be later depending upon how long Mayor Garcetti waits to sign the ordinances once the City Council votes a second time.
 
One side note: Councilman Paul Koretz (CD5) successfully had the new R1 Variation zone for the Cheviot Hills area removed from the proposed ordinance. Koretz requested 30 days to work on creating a new R1 zone for the area that will address homeowners’ concerns about the zone that had been proposed for their neighborhood.
 

The City is holding a special meeting today (March 1) in which the City Council will vote on the changes to the Baseline Hillside Ordinance (BHO), Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (BMO), new R1 Variations Ordinance, and the specific R1 variation zone changes that have been proposed for 15 communities (primarily in the Westside).
 
Because the City Council is calling this a Special Meeting, it only needed to provide 24-hour notice of the hearing. If 12 or more council members vote unanimously in support of the motions today, the items can skip the required 2nd reading and go straight to the Mayor’s office. Mayor Garcetti has 10 days to sign it; once he does, it goes back to the City Clerk for publishing. As soon as the City Clerk publishes the approved and signed ordinances, they take effect because each of these ordinances have an urgency clause attached to them.
 
Bottom line: The new BHO, BMO, R1 ordinances could take effect as early as Monday, March 6, and will likely take effect no later than early in the week of March 13, assuming the council has at least 12 members present today and they all vote in favor of each of these ordinances. If the council has fewer than 12 members and/or one or more members opposes the ordinances, the ordinances will return to the City Council on March 8 for a second reading and vote which would mean they take effect later this month. This is unlikely, but it is possible.
 
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:15 a.m. in the John Ferraro Council Chamber (Room 340) of Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012.
 
The agenda for today’s hearing is here: 
https://www.lacity.org/city-government/calendar 

The Council Files for these items can be found on the City Clerk’s website.

Baseline Mansionization/Baseline Hillside Code Amendment:
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=14-0656

R1 Variation Zones Code Amendment: 
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=16-1460

Neighborhood Conservation Zone Changes:
https://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=16-1470

The City Council’s Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee voted late Tuesday to support the Planning Department’s proposed R1 Variations Ordinance and specific R1 varieties for about 20 different neighborhoods. But rather than forward that recommendation to the City Council for a full vote, PLUM voted to send those draft ordinances along with the previously endorsed revisions to the Baseline Hillside Ordinance (BHO) and Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (BMO) back to the City Attorney’s Office. The CAO will combined all of these draft ordinances into one, large ordinance for the City Council to vote on.
 
Because of this extra step, it appears highly unlikely that any changes to the BHO/BMO or any new R1 variations will take effect before mid-March. The City Council and Mayor still are expected to approve these proposed changes before several ICOs expire on March 25; it’s just looking more and more likely that it’ll be hours or days before that March 25 deadline, not weeks.

The proposed R1 Variations Ordinance – which would create 16 different varieties of the R1 zone – is on today's agenda of the City Council’s Planning & Land Use Management Committee (PLUM). Also on the agenda is an ordinance that would establish one of these new R1 varieties for 20+ neighborhoods, mostly in West LA.
 
PLUM previously considered and approved draft versions of these proposals from City Planning last month and forwarded them to the City Attorney’s Office for creation of the final, proposed ordinance. These two ordinances – the R1 Varieties and the neighborhood-specific recommendations – are part of City Planning’s overall rework of the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance and will replace the Interim Control Ordinances (ICOs) that the City Council approved in March 2015 and which expire on March 24 of this year.
 
The ordinances being considered at today’s PLUM meeting are:
 
R1 VARIATIONS:
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2016/16-1460_misc_02-10-2017.pdf
 
NEIGHBORHOOD CONSERATION ZONE CHANGES:
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2016/16-1470_misc_02-10-2017.pdf
 
A couple of key points:

1. They have urgency clauses attached to them. That means that theoretically these could be approved by PLUM, the City Council, and the Mayor in just a couple of weeks and enacted just a few days later, which could make end-of-this-month possible. The key word is “could.” It is still more likely that the changes to the BMO, Baseline Hillside Ordinance and R1 zones won’t become effective until March. Exactly when is still unknown other than that it’ll be before the ICOs expire on March 24.
2. The ordinance to establish a Hillside Construction Regulation Area for the Bel-Air area is not included on tomorrow’s agenda. Apparently, the City Attorney’s Office is still working on the final version of that proposed ordinance. That’s significant because that’s a key element in the update of the BHO, and the PLUM chairman (City Councilman Jose Huizar) said last month that the ‘package’ of ordinances would be voted on together by the full City Council. So it is possible that even if/when PLUM votes to recommend approval of the draft ordinances on today’s agenda, the full City Council won’t vote on these proposals and the BHO/BMO updates until the Bel-Air Hillside ordinance is passed by PLUM. The ETA for that is currently unknown (other than it’ll happen by March 24 at the latest)
   

As expected, the City Council’s Plum Committee at a special meeting Wednesday unanimously approved without changes three controversial ordinances that will effect development in more than 40% of the city's residentially zoned neighborhoods: R1 Variations, Bel-Air Hillside Construction Development limitations, and the BHO/BMO revisions.
 
The first two ordinances (R1 Variations and Bel-Air development) will go to the City Attorney’s Office to be converted into final, draft ordinances. They will return to the PLUM committee later this spring.
 
The third ordinance (BHO/BMO updates) was passed and can go to the City Council for a final vote. But it looks like – as predicted here – the council is going to sit on the BHO/BMO updates until the R1 Variations and Bel-Air development ordinances come back from the City Attorney’s Office for PLUM vote. That's because PLUM chairman Jose Huizar asked - as the committee was voting on the BHO/BMO proposal - when the ordinance would be with the full council, and staff said that “they” have asked that the BHO/BMO update not be voted on by the council until the other ordinances “can be packaged” with it (no explanation of who “they” is: City Attorney’s office? Fellow council members?). Huizar said that was fine by him, asked if any of the committee members objected, and when no one did, the voted unanimously to recommend approval.
 
So that means the City Attorney’s Office needs to produce the R1 Variations and Bel-Air development ordinances quickly and it is highly likely that the whole package will be approved and enacted right before the March 25 deadline.

Why is March 25 so important? Because that's when 15 Interim Control Ordinances (ICOs) around the city expire, and if these new rules aren't in place before the ICOs expire, the rules in those 15 areas revert back to 'standard' zoning which could mean an outbreak of so-called McMansions.

Those weren't the only controversial items addressed during the 3+ hour-long meeting Wednesday.
 
The committee voted to approve Rick Caruso’s controversial project at 333 La Cienega after Councilman Paul Koretz arrived to announce that they struck a deal to reduce its height from 240 feet to 185 feet and increase the amount of money Caruso is giving to community groups and increase the amount of affordable housing units in the now-16-story mixed-use project. The full council is expected to vote on the project next week.

The committee voted to approve the Sunset Square Historic Preservation Overlay Zone, despite numerous protests against the inclusion of several blocks west of Fairfax and south of Hollywood Blvd. The motion goes to the City Attorney’s Office for it to write the final draft ordinance.