PLANNING LA-Beverly Grove, a neighborhood sandwiched between Park LaBrea, LACMA, the Farmers Market, Cedars-Sinai, and the Beverly Center is on the verge of becoming the third Los Angeles neighborhood to obtain protection against mansionization through a Residential Floor Area (RFA) district. Since many other Los Angeles communities are interested in similar safeguards, here is a brief overview of what has transpired and what is on the horizon.
First, so far the Los Angeles City Council has adopted two Residential Floor Area ordinances: Sunland-Tujunga and Studio City. In both cases the existing ordinance, the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance, was totally ineffective in stopping the construction of supersized, spec houses that tower over existing homes.
Second, three other Los Angeles communities – in Valley Village, Beverlywood, and Brentwood -- all suffering from the same oversized, out-of-character houses, received City Council motions directing the Department of City Planning to prepare a local Residential Floor Area ordinance. But, because the Department of City Planning failed to act on these motions within a two year City Council deadline, these three motions were voided.
Third, Council District 5, which backed the Beverly Grove RFA, announced that three other communities have also requested RFA's in order to stop similar, fast-paced construction of oversized houses.
Fourth, in the case of the Beverly Grove RFA, Council District 5, under Councilmember Jack Weiss and his successor, Paul Koretz, conducted two independent surveys of constituent attitudes regarding mansionization and a proposed RFA. In both surveys, 62 percent of local households (with a 50 percent plus response rate) supported local regulations to stop mansionization or a specific RFA ordinance. Furthermore, the proposed RFA ordinance that Paul Koretz submitted to a vote was substantially more restrictive than the Beverly Grove RFA he actually proposed in his Council motion.
Fifth, at all public workshops and hearings on the proposed Beverly Grove RFA about two-thirds of attendees favored the RFA. To be fair, there was a vocal minority at each of these meetings, and they repeatedly claimed they had signatures demonstrating a majority of local Beverly Grove residents opposed an RFA. But, these signatures were never publicly released during this entire RFA preparation and adoption process for review or verification. Furthermore, there was no way to know what claims RFA opponents made to Beverly Grove residents and absentee property owners to obtain their signatures. This is why Council Office 5 relied on its own independent surveys, as well as many constituent meetings, to assess local opinion and prepare a potential RFA ordinance.
Sixth, based on the evidence that Beverly Grove RFA proponents and Council District 5 presented to the City Planning Commission (CPC), that about 3/4 of Beverly Grove's 70 plus over-sized, out-of-character houses were permitted through last minute loopholes inserted into the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (BMO), the CPC unanimously approved the Beverly Grove RFA. The City Planning Commission also called for revisions of the citywide Baseline Mansionization Ordinance to remove the loopholes that permit the mansionization of Beverly Grove and other Los Angeles neighborhoods.
Seventh, the decade-long process to control the mansionization of Los Angeles residential neighborhood has moved on two tracks. One track was at the policy level, where the city’s adopted General Plan, as well as City Planning Commission documents, were in clear opposition to residential mansionization. A second track was legislative, to implement these official policies.
This is where the process broke down. The Baseline Mansionization contained last minute loopholes that permitted the continued construction of over-sized, out-of-character houses, despite its wonderful intentions. The two most critical loopholes, the exemption of garages from floor area calculations, and a 20 percent square footage bonus for unverified “green” architectural features, also had an additional downside.
These two loopholes not only allow new houses to become “McMansions” (oversized, suburban style houses inserted into older residential neighborhoods), but they promote much greater use of energy and the resulting generation of the Green House Gases responsible for climate change. More specifically, all of the exempted garages are attached to houses and add 400 square feet of bloat.
Furthermore, the “green” bonus was the height of contradiction because research demonstrates that the large houses consume twice the energy of the smaller homes they replaced.
Furthermore, Los Angeles is legally obligated to comply with State of California climate change mandates (AB 32 and SB 375) to reduce the generation of Green House Gases. Eliminating these loopholes is an amazingly easy step to comply with these state requirements.
(Dick Platkin teaches a course on sustainable city planning at USC, is on the board of the Beverly Wilshire Homes Association and is an occasional contributor to CityWatch. Please direct any comments or questions to [email protected].) [[hotlink]]
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 85
Pub: Oct 22, 2013