Updates on some earlier LandUseLA.com stories:

BEVERLY GROVE RFA DISTRICT ORDINANCE SIGNED & IN EFFECT
An ordinance that would put significant restrictions on the size of single-family dwellings in a small Mid-City neighborhood took affect Monday, just days after it was signed by Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Earlier this month, limitations on new and remodeled single-family dwellings in Beverly Grove were approved unanimously by the City Council, the most restrictive "anti-McMansion" rules yet adopted in Los Angeles. The ordinance was passed with an urgency clause, putting it on a fast track for enactment.

The Residential Floor Area (RFA) District covers approximately 700 homes in a 5-street Mid City neighborhood between San Vicente Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue north of Wilshire Boulevard. It limits the maximum residential floor area ratio (FAR) contained in all residential buildings and accessory buildings to 42 percent, with various bonuses that could bring the FAR up to 50%. For example, a home on a 6,000-square-foot lot would be limited to 3,000 square feet, with bonuses.

The Beverly Grove RFA sets both a lower base FAR and a lower maximum allowable FAR than is currently allowed citywide.

Beverly Grove RFA Final Ordinance
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2011/11-1438_ord_182754_10-28-2013.pdf

Anti-McMansion ordinance OK'd for Beverly Grove
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/10/anti-mcmansion-ordinance-okd-for-beverly-grove.html


MORE OPPOSITION TO PROPOSED MERGER OF DEPARTMENTS
The City Council's Budget and Finance Committee endorsed Monday the motion to table the merger of the city's Planning and Building & Safety Departments until June, if at all.

Earlier this month, the council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee recommended that the idea be tabled until at least July while options were studied other than a merger. Nearly 30 people spoke in favor of postponing the merger during the PLUM Committee hearing.

Monday's vote by the Budget and Finance Committee endorsed the PLUM Committee plan. Both recommendations will now be forwarded to the full City Council for vote.

Mayor Eric Garcetti endorsed the plan to search for other options, saying he would veto the highly controversial proposed merger because “I think that’s just rearranging the bureaucracy and not the systems.”

LandUseLA: Garcetti vows to stop Planning, LADBS merger
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/10/update-garcetti-vows-to-stop-planning-ladbs-merger.html

Starbucks, the world's largest coffee specialist, is aggressively expanding in Los Angeles in the one area it has yet to conquer: your car.

The Seattle-based company's green-trimmed stores are found in every corner of Los Angeles. But in the last six months, Starbucks has rolled out plans for a half-dozen new stores that are car-centric and devoid of the leather chairs, wood paneling and hipster music so common in its traditional shops.

Drive-through restaurants are more complicated projects in the city than a traditional walk-in coffee store since they require discretionary Conditional Use Permits and may have additional requirements such as Site Plan Reviews, Specific Plan compliance requirements and/or deviations from the Zoning Code. And of course, that assumes that an applicant can find a suitable location for a drive-through restaurant. There aren't a lot of failing drive-through restaurants in Los Angeles to be taken over or vacant commercial land.

Probably the most interesting of Starbucks' current projects is a proposal to convert the Gilmore Gasoline Service Station at the southwest corner of Highland and Willoughby avenues. The Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council's Land Use Committee last week heard the proposal, which is still in draft form and has yet to be formally submitted to the city.

The gas station was designated a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1992 by the city but has sat vacant for more than 20 years. Starbucks' current plan is to retain most of the building's unique architecture while also providing drive-through and walk-up service (draft elevation provided by GWNC LUC).

Greg Wittmann, secretary of the GWNC LUC, told LandUseLA.com that his committee "was receptive to the idea of a drive-through Starbucks because the Gilmore Gas Station is a designated historic structure in serious disrepair which has sat vacant for 25 years."

The committee did have two areas of concern, asking Starbucks' architect to consider using the alley behind the parcel for automobile access instead of Willoughby and to improve the visibility of pedestrian access from Highland.  Architect Elizabeth Valerio told the committee that her firm still needs to meet with city officials, including the Planning Department's Office of Historic Resources.

Starbucks submitted applications in the last several months with the Planning Department for drive-through outlets in San Pedro, Northeast Los Angeles, Granada Hills and Valley Village.  The San Pedro location was approved in September and the Northeast LA location was OK'd in August. The Granada Hills application has a public hearing set for next Tuesday (Nov. 5).

A case was filed in August for a drive-through restaurant in Valley Village* at the southwest corner of Burbank and Laurel Canyon boulevards. The original application requested an exception from the Valley Village Specific Plan to allow a drive-through restaurant. But the case was terminated earlier this month because Starbucks would need to amend the specific plan to allow for drive-through restaurants, according to the Planning Department. An amendment is a much more expensive and time-consuming application than the exception and much less frequently approved.

The termination of the Valley Village project speaks to the difficulties a company like Starbucks faces as it tries to expand its drive-through operations in more neighborhoods throughout the city. Large portions of south Los Angeles are under an Interim Control Ordinance that prohibits new fast-food restaurants to be permitted, and other specific plans in Los Angeles also prevent or severely limit fast-food and/or drive-through restaurants.

Starbucks has nine drive-through outlets in the Valley already, plus single outlets in Venice, Arlington Heights and South Los Angeles. If the Gilmore gas station site is approved, it'll be the first Starbucks drive-through between the 405 and downtown Los Angeles that is north of Washington.

Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee Agenda
http://www.greaterwilshire.org/site/?q=node/547

Gilmore Gasoline Service Station Historic-Cultural Designation (#508)
http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/HCM/dsp_hcm_result.cfm?community=Hollywood

Approval Letter for Proposed San Pedro Drive-Through Starbucks (1690 W. Lomita Blvd.)
http://pdis.lacity.org/pdf/viewPDF.aspx?Query=;Doc=200A9

Approval Letter for Proposed Northeast LA Drive-Through Starbucks (6240 E. York Blvd.)
http://pdis.lacity.org/pdf/viewPDF.aspx?Query=;Doc=20083

CUP for Proposed Granada Hills Drive-Through Starbucks (17901 Chatsworth Blvd.)
http://planning.lacity.org/cts_internet/index.cfm?urlCaseId=192731&caseNumber=ZA-2013-2389-CU&fuseaction=case.summary

Terminated Valley Village Drive-Through Starbucks (12106 Burbank Blvd.)
http://planning.lacity.org/cts_internet/index.cfm?urlCaseId=192834&caseNumber=APCSV-2013-2476-SPE-SPP-ZV-CU&fuseaction=case.summary

* DISCLOSURE: My firm, Pacific Crest Consultants, was one of several firms asked to provide a contract proposal to provide entitlement services for the Valley Village project prior to the case submittal. We were not selected.

Limitations on new and remodeled single-family dwellings in Beverly Grove were approved unanimously Friday by the City Council, the most restrictive "anti-McMansion" rules yet adopted in Los Angeles.

The ordinance would put a Residential Floor Area (RFA) District over approximately 700 homes in a 5-street Mid City neighborhood between San Vicente Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue north of Wilshire Boulevard. This would be the second RFA District approved in the city following the February 2012 approval of a RFA District in Studio City.

The Beverly Grove RFA will limit the maximum residential floor area ratio (FAR) contained in all residential buildings and accessory buildings to 42 percent, with various bonuses that could bring the FAR up to 50%. For example, a home on a 6,000-square-foot lot would be limited to 3,000 square feet, with bonuses. The Beverly Grove RFA sets both a lower base FAR and a lower maximum allowable FAR than is currently allowed citywide.

Several local homeowner groups have pushed for the RFA District, saying that recently built homes are out of character with the 90-year-old neighborhood.

"These out-of-scale homes ... completely change the character of these neighborhoods," Councilman Paul Koretz said, who represents the area, said before today's vote.

The ordinance will take affect in only 5-8 weeks, depending upon when Mayor Eric Garcetti signs it into law.  The timeline is aggressive because the ordinance was fast-tracked earlier this month by the council's Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, which voted to recommend the new regulations with an urgency clause at the request of Koretz.

Not everyone in Beverly Grove supports the RFA District. At the PLUM committee meeting last month, opponents submitted petitions signed by 359 people identified as property owners in the neighborhood who oppose the RFA. Despite the opposition, the PLUM committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of the RFA District to the full City Council.

The new ordinance will affect any construction projects submitted once the new rules take affect. Any current construction projects in the Beverly Grove area with an active application with the Los Angeles Building & Safety Department would not be subject to the ordinance.

In the last several years, similar RFA Districts were proposed for the Brentwood Park, Valley Village and Beverlywood neighborhoods, but those efforts died before making it to the City Council for vote.


LandUseLA.com (previous): 'McMansion' limits for another neighborhood
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/10/mcmansion-limits-for-another-neighborhood.html

City Council file
http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=11-1438

City Planning Beverly Grove Residential Floor Area District Study
https://sites.google.com/site/beverlygroverfadistrict/

Mayor Eric Garcetti will stop the highly controversial proposed merger between the city's Planning and Building & Safety departments, he told the Los Angeles Times editorial board this afternoon.

“I think that’s just rearranging the bureaucracy and not the systems,” Garcetti said.

The proposal was already running into strong opposition within the City Council. Last week, the council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee recommended that the idea be tabled until at least July while options were studied other than a merger. Nearly 30 people spoke in favor of postponing the merger during the PLUM Committee hearing.

Proponents of the merger say that consolidation will result in lower costs and quicker processing times. They point out that managers of both departments are publicly on board. They also say that the city has spent $850,000 to study and prepare for this merger and doesn't need to spend more money to study it further until July.

Opponents of the merger say there is no proof of either lower costs or quicker processing times, and they question whether a merger of two departments with different and sometimes conflicting roles should be under one banner. Building & Safety is a policing agency that guarantees residents' safety, they say. Planning is a development agency that is judged by the amount and types of projects that get built. They also say that most employees of the two departments are quietly opposed to the merger.

The merger was first proposed under then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and was endorsed by then-councilman Eric Garcetti. Garcetti's announcment today was his first public comments on the merger since taking office.

“I liked it in the abstract, but in the concrete, I don’t think it’s ready to go,” Garcetti told the Times.

LA Times: Garcetti says he'll stop merger of Los Angeles building agencies
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-garcetti-blocks-planning-building-merger-20131015,0,2023322.story

LandUseLA:  Departments' merger won't occur Jan. 1 - if at all
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/10/departments-merger-wont-occur-jan-1-if-at-all.html

The City Council rescheduled today's vote on the anti-McMansion ordinance for the Beverly Grove area to Friday's council meeting.

The item was originally scheduled to be voted on today. But the council agreed unanimously without discussion to delay the vote three days.

If approved, the ordinance would put a Residential Floor Area (RFA) District over approximately 700 homes in a 5-street Mid City neighborhood between San Vicente Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue north of Wilshire Boulevard. This would be the second RFA District approved in the city following the February 2012 approval of a RFA District in Studio City.

The ordinance was fast-tracked last week by the council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which voted to recommend the new regulations with an urgency clause at the request of Councilman Paul Koretz, whose 5th District includes Beverly Grove. If the City Council votes Friday to approve the ordinance, it could take affect in about 5-8 weeks later depending upon how quickly Mayor Eric Garcetti signs it.

LandUseLA.com: 'McMansion' limits for another neighborhood
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/10/mcmansion-limits-for-another-neighborhood.html

UPDATE (8:26 p.m.): Garcetti vows to stop Planning, LADBS merger
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/10/update-garcetti-vows-to-stop-planning-ladbs-merger.html

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(Original Post 6:27 a.m.)

The controversial, proposed merger between the city's departments of Planning and Building & Safety will not occur on Jan. 1 as originally proposed, a city consultant told a key City Council committee recently, and may not occur at all if alternative methods are adopted to streamline the city's construction bureaucracies.

Gary Goelitz of Matrix Consulting Group told members of the City Council's Planning & Land Use Management Committee last week that it was too late to implement the merger in 2013.

"No, it's not possible," he said when asked by PLUM chairman Jose Huizar if the merger could still be completed this calendar year. "I'm not suggesting that you don't start the process, but I am suggesting that to expect the end of the process to be Jan. 1 is beyond reasonable now."

Goelitz spoke a few minutes before committee members voted to recommend postponing the merger until July 2014, if at all. The PLUM Committee recommended that the Council instruct its consultants to study "options other than consolidation that would improve the City's development process."

About 30 people spoke to the requested delay at the PLUM Committee hearing, with the vast majority of the speakers in favor of the delay.

The overwhelming support of a delay was in stark contrast to a month ago, when council members Curren Price Jr. and Tom LaBonge first proposed a motion on the Council floor for a postponement. Quick-acting and vocal community members forced the council to steer the motion to committee, where they said the pros and cons of stalling the merger needed to be discussed in public.

Proponents of the merger say that consolidation will result in lower costs and quicker processing times. They point out that managers of both departments publicly support the merger. They also say that the city has spent $850,000 to study and prepare for this merger and doesn't need to spend more money to study it further until July.

Opponents of the merger say there is no proof of either lower costs or quicker processing times, and they question whether a merger of two departments with different and sometimes conflicting roles should be under one banner. Building & Safety is a policing agency that guarantees residents' safety, they say. Planning is a development agency that is judged by the amount and types of projects that get built. They also say that most employees of the two departments are quietly opposed to the merger.

The merger was first proposed under then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and was endorsed by then-councilman Eric Garcetti. Now that Garcetti is mayor, he has not indicated whether he wants to go through with it.

“The priority for Mayor Garcetti is less red tape and faster customer service, and he is analyzing consolidation options that would best help businesses open and create jobs here in L.A.,” spokesman Yusef Robb told Rick Orlov of the Los Angeles Daily News in mid-September.

The item is now with the council's Budget and Finance Committee but is not currently scheduled for a hearing date.


PLUM Committee hearing Oct. 8 audio
http://lacity.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=103&clip_id=12222

Councilman Price's motion to delay merger
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2013/13-0046_MOT_09-13-13.pdf

Letter of support for merger delay
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2013/13-0046_PC_09-17-13.pdf

LA Daily News: Hearing set on merger of L.A. building, planning departments
http://www.dailynews.com/government-and-politics/20130917/hearing-set-on-merger-of-la-building-planning-departments

City Watch LA: City Council Trying to Bypass the Public and Hijack LA’s Department Consolidation Process
http://www.citywatchla.com/recent-posts-hidden/337-recent-posts-8box-left/5712-city-council-trying-to-bypass-the-public-and-hijack-la-s-department-consolidation-process

The City of Los Angeles is poised to approve its second neighborhood-specific set of restrictions on the size of single-family homes, this time to limit "McMansions" in the Beverly Grove area.

The City Council will vote Tuesday on an ordinance that would put a Residential Floor Area (RFA) District over approximately 700 homes in a 5-street Mid City neighborhood between San Vicente Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue north of Wilshire Boulevard. This would be the second RFA District approved in the city following the February 2012 approval of a RFA District in Studio City.

If enacted, the Beverly Grove RFA would limit the maximum residential floor area ratio (FAR) contained in all
buildings and accessory buildings to 42 percent, with various bonuses that could bring the FAR up to 50%. For example, a home on a 6,000-square-foot lot would be limited to 3,000 square feet, with bonuses. The Beverly Grove RFA sets both a lower base FAR and a lower maximum allowable FAR than is currently allowed citywide.

Several local homeowner groups have pushed for the RFA District, saying that recently built homes are out of character with the 90-year-old neighborhood. "These Beverly Grove McMansions are out-of-character, out-of-scale, and deprive neighboring houses of privacy, air and sunlight," wrote the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association in its support letter for the ordinance.

But not everyone in Beverly Grove supports the RFA District. At the City Council's Planning & Land Use (PLUM) Committee last month, opponents submitted petitions signed by 359 people identified as property owners in the neighborhood who oppose the RFA. Despite the opposition, the PLUM committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of the RFA District to the full City Council.

Councilman Paul Koretz, who represents the area, requested that the PLUM Committee recommend an urgency clause for the Beverly Grove RFA, which the committee did citing an urgent need for the new regulations. That urgency clause has pushed the Beverly Grove RFA District on a fast tract toward approval. If the City Council votes Tuesday to approve the ordinance, it could take affect in about 5-8 weeks later depending upon how quickly Mayor Eric Garcetti signs it.

By contrast, the Baseline Hillside Ordinance (which set development limits on the city's Hillside neighborhoods) was approved by the PLUM Committee in August 2010 without an urgency clause. It wasn't enacted for 8 months.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the Beverly Grove RFA on Tuesday during its regularly scheduled meeting, which starts at 10 a.m. at City Hall.

City Council file
http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=11-1438

PLUM Report
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2011/11-1438_rpt_plum_9-17-13.PDF

359 petitions submitted opposing the RFA District
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2011/11-1438_pc_09-17-2013.pdf

Beverly-Wilshire Homes Association support
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2011/11-1438_pc_9-17-13.pdf

Beverly Grove Alliance support
http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2011/11-1438_pc_9-12-13.pdf

Studio City Residential Floor Area District Ordinance
http://planning.lacity.org/Code_Studies/Misc/ResidentialFloorPlan.pdf

Preservationists and the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission believe that Johnie's Coffee Shop deserves a Historic-Cultural Monument designation. But they'll have to wait until the city of Los Angeles cleans up a paperwork snafu first.

Legal notices to alert the current owner of Johnie's to the impending designation were sent to the wrong address, city officials acknowledged last week. So the movement to name the Goggie-style structure on the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue will have to wait, according to the Los Angeles Times.

As originally reported by LandUseLA.com, the one-story restaurant exhibits "character-defining" features of Googie-style architecture. It has also been the backdrop of numerous movies, television shows and music videos, probably most notably The Big Lebowski and American History X.

The historic designation was already approved by the Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Commission. The City Council's Planning and Land Use Committee delayed a vote last week to approve the designation until the notification problem can be cleared. The full City Council must still vote on the issue as well.

LA Times: Naming of Johnie's Coffee Shop as Historic LA Landmark Hits Snag
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-coffee-shop-20131003,0,3537546.story

LandUseLA: Is Johnie's Coffee Worth Saving?
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/07/is-johnies-coffee-worth-saving.html

One of the largest and oldest Korean American churches can dramatically increase its Los Angeles campus by replacing its nearly 50-year-old facility with a 3-story, 27,000-square-foot sanctuary with seating for 1,755 parishioners, a 60,000-square-foot community center and two levels of subterranean parking.

As first reported by LandUseLA.com, the Berendo Street Baptist Church, which is located in the heart of LA's Koreatown, submitted an application on Jan. 2 for its expansion project.  Among the entitlements needed were a Site Plan Review and Zoning Administrator's Adjustments for reduced yard setbacks for the new buildings and the subterranean parking.

The approval letter from the Office of Zoning Administration was issued last month and became final last week when no one appealed the approval. The church received all of the requested entitlements but did withdraw its request for a reduced rear yard of 10 feet and will instead meet the 15-foot minimum rear yard.

The public hearing was mostly attended by supporters of the project. But a lawyer who represented both a neighboring medical office building and a nearby residential building spoke in objection to how closely the church was building its subterranean parking to his clients' buildings. The lawyer's clients were apparently satisfied with the church's response since the approval wasn't appealed.

The church was organized in March 1957, only the second Korean Baptist church in the United States. It has been called the "mother ship" of Korean Baptist churches in the U.S. because of its activist role in training Korean Baptist ministers and the missionary services that its members have traditionally provided around the country.

ZA Approval Letter:
http://zimas.lacity.org/reports/cee25a68541992bd86a67ad5facb9d08.pdf

LandUseLA.com: Historic Koreatown Church Plans Major Expansion
http://www.landusela.com/1/post/2013/08/historic-koreatown-church-plans-major-expansion.html