The council's Planning & Land Use Management (PLUM) committee is expected to review and then pass along to the City Attorney's Office the draft R1 Variations ordinance that was approved by the City Planning Commission last month. PLUM members have a big night ahead of them: Wednesday's agenda also includes the updated draft ordinance for the Baseline Hillside Ordinance and Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (story here) and an appeal of the City Planning Commission's approval of a Frank Caruso's mixed-use project in Beverly Grove.
The R1 Variations ordinance would create 16 new flavors of the R1 zone that would maintain the same standard R1 Zone lot size and setback requirements, but include different maximum Residential Floor Area ratios and also regulate height, form, and lot coverage to provide a range of new zones that vary from larger to smaller in scale.
The R1 zone currently covers 38% of the city, according to the City Planning Department. That makes this one of the largest, most far-reaching changes in City Planning history. Having said that, the proposed ordinance that PLUM will review tomorrow only includes specific zone changes for a few neighborhoods in Los Angeles, primarily in West LA and a few Hillside areas south of Mulholland Drive.
Eventually, all of the R1 neighborhoods in Los Angeles could be rezoned to one of the R1 variations, assuming the City Council approves the ordinance once the City Attorney's office has feted it. But for now, city officials are rushing to get the overall R1 Variations ordinance and spot zoning for the first 15 neighborhoods approved by March 25, when current Interim Control Ordinances (ICOs) expire. Those ICOs are currently preventing development that once was allowed by-right in those neighborhoods; city officials want the new R1 Variations and updated BHO/BMO to establish the new "by-right" levels.
The City Council PLUM meeting Wednesday starts at 3:30 p.m. The agenda is here.