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.

Late Friday, the City Attorney’s office released its proposed draft ordinance for the changes to the Baseline Hillside Ordinance and Baseline Mansionization Ordinance, the highly controversial update to the rules that have governed hillside development and 'mansionization' in Los Angeles for more than a decade.
 
The City Council’s Planning & Land Use Management committee has already put the item on its agenda for this Wednesday’s meeting, which starts at 3:30 p.m. in City Hall (Room 340). Here's the draft ordinance: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2014/14-0656_misc_01-13-2017.pdf
 
The cover letter from the City Attorney’s Office (here) includes discussion about passing the BHO/BMO update simultaneously with City Planning’s ordinance establishing variations of the R1 Zone because “the simultaneous effective dates of these two ordinances is important because this draft ordinance amending the BMO and BHO and the R1 zone variation ordinance together repeal and replace” the 15 Interim Control Ordinances (ICOs) that were enacted on March 25, 2015. Those ICOs expire this March 25.

But the draft ordinance for the R1 Zone Variations (here) hasn’t been sent to the City Attorney’s office yet. It’s on this Wednesday’s PLUM agenda too so PLUM can review and (presumably) vote to send it to the City Attorney’s office for the final draft ordinance. If the City Council wants to pass and enact both simultaneously, the BHO/BMO update is going to have to be set aside for the R1 Zone Variations ordinance to catch up.
 
The City Attorney’s office thinks it’s so important for both ordinances to be enacted simultaneously, they’ve included an “urgency clause” in the BHO/BMO update so that the changes take effect as soon as the City Clerk posts the approved ordinance (approved by City Council; approved and signed by Mayor Garcetti).
 
So assuming that the City Council agrees with the City Attorney’s recommendation, the BHO/BMO changes will be take effect close to March 25 (along with the R1 Zone Variations). If 3/4s of  the City Council disagrees and wants to enact the changes to the BHO/BMO sooner (and the mayor agrees), it could be done within a couple of weeks thanks to the urgency clause.
 
So what does the draft ordinance change? The City Attorney’s summarized the significant changes to the BHO/BMO as:

• Reduces the maximum residential floor area ratio allowed in the R1 zone
  
• Modifies the areas that count toward the calculation of residential floor area by limiting the FAR exemptions in all SFD zones
  
• Eliminates all floor area bonus options in the R1 zone
• Eliminates all floor area bonuses for Green Building in all SFD zones
• Establishes an encroachment plane and side-wall offset for building envelopes in the R1 zone
• Requires occupied rooftop decks in the R1 zone to be 3+ feet from the side yard setback
• Limits driveway widths in the R1 zone in non-Hillside areas
• Requires a public hearing for property owners who want a 10% increase in RFA beyond the allowed by-right in non-Hillside areas
• Removes most “exempt” grading areas
• Increases the amount of by-right grading allowed in all zones except R1 to compensate for formerly exempt grading
• Limits the hours of import and export allowed
• Limits the amount of export/import allowed

  
If you would like to contact the PLUM members and weigh in on the proposed changes and/or the timeline for approval, the council members on PLUM are:

José Huizar (Committee chair) – 213-473-7014 or councilmember.huizar@lacity.org
Gil Cedillo – 213-473-7001 or councilmember.cedillo@lacity.org
Mitchell Englander – 213-473-7012 or councilmember.englander@lacity.org
Marqueece Harris-Dawson – 213-473-7008 or councilmember.harris-dawson@lacity.org
Curren Price – 213-473-7009 or councilmember.price@lacity.org

The city was wrong for requiring a Saudi prince to submit his proposed housing compound to a tract map review since he has no plans to subdivide the estate, according to an Appeals Court ruling obtained by LandUseLA.com that will free up other large-property developments from the extra level of scrutiny.

The prince's proposed estate drew international attention because his well-to-do neighbors, led by the wife of a billionaire investor, filed suit to stop the mega-mansion. They argued that allowing the various structures on 3 contingent parcels on Tower Lane was akin to building a Wal-Mart in Coldwater Canyon.

The neighborhood is a who's who of Hollywood and Los Angeles elite and the battle drew international headlines, including a notable feature in Vanity Fair:

The Appeals Court ruling, which was issued Friday, will make headlines again because of the names involved. But few people know that the lawsuit has actually impacted scores of other property owners, including many other Hollywood celebrities, well-to-do Angelenos and other developers of large lots in LA..

That's because since early 2012, the city's Planning and Building & Safety departments have required all developments on lots greater than 60,000 square feet to file an extra entitlement case to prove that their project wouldn't result in a de facto subdivision.

That requirement - known as a Waiver of Tentative Map or WTM - has added a couple months and several thousand dollars to scores of projects in the 2+ years since the city started the WTM process..

Now, with the Appeals Court ruling, those projects will not need the WTM review.

UPDATE (11:31 p.m.) : The developer has asked for a continuance from the City Planning Commission to "re-think the project and to perform additional community outreach," according to a copy of the developer's letter posted on the LA-32 Neighborhood Council website (here).

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Developers of a controversial mixed use project in Northeast Los Angeles will have to overcome Planning staff and neighborhood opposition when they present their case to the City Planning Commission on Thursday.

City Terrace LLC is proposing a 45,388-square-foot Charter Elementary School, a 20-unit multi-family residential structure and a 2,363 square-foot cafe on a vacant, 4.8-acre hillside lot in the 2500 block of North Eastern Avenue in El Sereno.

The development requires a Zone Change (with new Height District) and General Plan Amendment in order to be built as constructed. But the Planning Department staff report on the project just released recommends that the City Planning Commission denies both requests, which would kill the project if the CPC concurs.

The project has received a lot of attention from local residents, neighborhood groups and media. At a recent, special meeting of the LA-32 Neighborhood Council, the developer's presentation caused an "audible gasp" from neighbors who were surprised at its size and complexity, according to Curbed LA.

Opponents have created a website (http://90032.org/) to gather opposition signatures and collect documents produced by the developer and Planning Department.

The City Planning Commission meeting Thursday starts at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., Room 350.

Preserve El Sereno website:
http://90032.org/

Curbed LA:  No Love For School/Apartment Project on El Sereno Hillside
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/07/no_love_at_all_for_schoolapartment_project_on_el_sereno_hillside.php

Eastsider LA:  El Sereno mixed-use project meets with resistance
http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2013/07/el-sereno-mixed-use-project-meets-with-resistance/