The residents of many Los Angeles neighborhoods are fed up with the number of huge homes being built in the area. To this light, a key vote is to be held by the Los Angeles City Hall commission regarding the building of new “McMansions”. The new rules being considered are intended specifically to place a limit on the size of new homes to be built in the future.
The LA Planning Commission is considering a number of amendments to the city’s “Baseline Mansionization Ordinance. This 2008 law governs the construction of new single-family homes within the city limits.
According to sources, the new law is intended to adjust the current “buildable residential floor area from its current figure of 0.5 down to 0.45. As it stands right now, a homeowner whose land incorporates 10,000 square feet is typically allowed to build a home measuring 5,000 square feet. Under the proposed new ordinance, the homeowner would only be allowed to build a home measuring 4,500 square feet.
Among the other changes proposed under the new ordinance is the removal of the city’s current “green building” exemptions. The current regulations make it possible for the homeowner who builds an environmentally friendly home is eligible for a density bonus. This bonus allows the homeowner to build a larger home than he might otherwise have been permitted.
City officials have been receiving comments from a range of neighborhood groups over the course of the last several months. According to Tom Rothman, principal city planner for the city of Los Angeles, “Some neighborhoods like their big houses and they’re not interested in scaling back, others don’t think we’re going far enough.”
The city commission is expecting homeowners to come from communities as diverse as Pacific Palisades and West Los Angeles to attend the Planning Commission meeting to be held at the Los Angeles City Hall. Those planning to attend are expected to come from both sides of the argument in hopes of seeing their own interests be the one that the Planning Commission sides with.
Complaints about the construction of new McMansions is not something that is new to the area. In fact, earlier this year Sherman Oaks backed a temporary regulation designed specifically to stop the construction of these exceptionally large homes. This information comes from Richard Close, who is the current president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Association.
Close is quoted as saying, “We have no objection to big homes, but they have to fit into the character of the neighborhood.”
Those neighborhoods who currently have or are in the process of passing their own temporary building control regulations will not be affected by any new rules that are passed until their current ones expire. For most this will be in either March of 2017 or further out in June of 2018. This is only the first phase of the process, the proposed ordinance must also be passed by the Los Angeles City Council in order for it to become law.
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