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