16 Versions of R1 Zone Coming Soon

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)