Bel-Air Strikes Back at Large-Scale Mansions
Bel-Air residents are expected to show-up en masse this afternoon when the City Council's land-use committee votes on whether the city should establish a special district in their neighborhood that would limit the size of new or remodeled homes and limit the amount of related construction activity.
The Hillside Construction Regulation Area, if passed, would establish hauling operation standards, construction activity standards, grading limits and require additional discretionary review for homes with an area of 20,000 square feet or greater.
The proposed ordinance - which must still be feted by the City Attorney's Office and approved by the City Council and Mayor before it can become city law - was proposed in response to a significant uptick in large-scale development in Bel-Air in the last few years. For example, from 2011 to 2015, approximately 18 building permits were issued for new SFDs with 20,000 square feet or greater of residential floor area, according to the City Planning Department. During that same time, more than 800 hauling permits were issued for projects in Bel-Air that cumulatively hauled more than 800,000 cubic yards of dirt.
The Bel-Air Alliance formed in May 2014 to protest the number, size and scope of projects in the community. They have been calling on City Hall - and Councilman Paul Koretz, specifically, who's council district includes Bel-Air - to enact rules that would limit the size and impact of projects. The HCRA is the first major legislative response.
The City Council's PLUM committee meeting today starts at 3:30 p.m. Here is the agenda; here is the draft HCRA.
Department updates proposed Community Design Overlay for Little Tokyo
The Planning Department released an updated draft of the Little Tokyo Community Design Overlay District today that redraws the CDO's proposed boundary and will vet the changes at another public meeting in February.
The Little Tokyo CDO process started in 2006 with the goal of promoting pedestrian-friendly developments while also preserving the historical and cultural identity of Little Tokyo, one of the oldest ethnic enclaves in the city.
The proposed CDO includes extensive design and function guidelines, from entrance orientation to exterior materials and colors. Nearly every exterior change to a Little Tokyo building will be required to submit an application to the CDO staff for review.
The city already has 19 CDOs; the Little Tokyo would be the 20th and is the only draft CDO currently under development.
The proposed CDO has already gone through several rounds of public meetings and approvals, including an endorsement from the City Planning Commission in August. But since the CPC approval, the Planning Department has modified the boundaries of the CDO to reflect public input.
Comments received on the Little Tokyo CDO guidelines at a Planning Department public hearing last February were "almost exclusively in support" of the changes, according to the staff report. It was at that hearing where many supporters of the CDO asked that the boundaries be expanded to include significant Japanese historic and cultural institutions such as the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple, Zenshuji Soto Mission, and St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.
The modified map adds most of the block east of Alameda Street between Temple and 1st streets. It also proposes to remove most of the parcels on the south side of 3rd Street between Los Angeles and Alameda streets.
The proposed CDO still needs support from the City Council and Mayor's office before it can be enacted.
Limited Public Hearing notice: Feb. 4
Draft Little Tokyo Community Design Overlay District
City Planning Commission report
'McMansion' limits for another neighborhood
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
Studio City Residential Floor Area District Ordinance
http://planning.lacity.org/Code_Studies/Misc/ResidentialFloorPlan.pdf
UPDATE: Developer Faces Uphill Battle in Northeast LA
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).
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/
Charter School Targets Del Rey Site for New Middle School
The City Planning Commission will consider a proposal Thursday to allow a new 500-student charter school in a Del Rey business park.
Green Dot, the Los Angeles-based nationally recognized charter school operator, has requested a Conditional Use Permit to move its Westminster middle school to a two-story office building at the northeast corner of McConnell Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard in Del Rey.
Charter schools are publicly funded schools that are chartered by local school districts, county offices of education or the state to educate their students with their own, unique educational system. Many charter schools operate within existing school facilities, but the Los Angeles Unified School District is so impacted that a large percentage of its charter schools must rent private space to operate. Green Dot says it has outgrown the space it currently shares on the campus of Cowan Elementary School in Westchester.
The proposal requires a Conditional Use Permit because operating a school is not a by-right use in the M2 zone, where the subject site is located. The project site is surrounded by light manufacturing uses to the north, east and west, and vacant land to the south that is zoned multi-family residential and commercial as part of the Playa Vista Area D Specific Plan.
The Del Rey Neighborhood Council voted to support the application after much discussion about the project's traffic impact on the neighborhood. The NC's first vote was to oppose the project as first proposed but to send the request back to its Land Use Committee for further discussion.
Former Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who was termed out of office this summer, told the Argonaut News in December that he supports the Conditional Use Permit request. "I will definitely be speaking in favor of it, as long as there are no critical planning issues," Rosendahl said. Newly elected Councilman Mike Bonin hasn't publicly stated his position on the project.
The City Planning Commission meets Thursday at 8:30 a.m. in the Public Works Board Room (#350), 200 N. Main Street, Los Angeles.
Argonaut News: Green Dot Charter school seeks relocation to light industrial area
http://argonautnews.com/del-rey-green-dot-charter-school-seeks-relocation-to-light-industrial-area/
Del Rey Neighborhood Council vote:
http://www.delreync.org/GreenDotRelocation
Del Rey Neighborhood Council Fact Sheet:
http://www.delreync.org/sites/default/files/Fact%20Sheet%2011-12-12_0.pdf
City Planning Commission agenda:
http://ens.lacity.org/pln/cityplnagenda/plncityplnagenda28583181_07112013.pdf
Planning Department electronic tracking: CPC-2012-2904-CU
http://planning.lacity.org/cts_internet/index.cfm?urlCaseId=189032&caseNumber=CPC-2012-2904-CU&fuseaction=case.summary
Homeowners Groups Appeal Approval of 325-Unit Condo Complex
Artists rendering of Il Villagio Toscano. Courtesy of CurbedLA.
Three prominent South Valley homeowners groups filed appeals last week against the City Planning Commission's approval of a 325-unit condominium project near the 405-101 interchange.
The Coalition to Stop Il Villaggio Toscano opposes the project because of "massive traffic" and other environmental impacts it will have on the surrounding community.
The coalition was created by the Encino Property Owners Assn. (EPOA), Homeowners of Encino (HOME) and Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. (SOHA), three well-known and active homeowners groups in the South Valley. The coalition says it's not trying to kill the project, just to "actively reduce the size and scope of the project."
The project was originally proposed in 2004 to include 500 units, but the developer asked for and received approval for just 325 units at the CPC hearing last month. The 8-story project will also include 55,000 square feet of commercial space, an outdoor plaza and approximately 1,200 parking spaces.
The project's Final EIR was published in January 2013. The developer requested numerous entitlements, which were granted by the CPC, including a Zone Change, new Height District, and several exceptions to the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan. The project also has a Vesting Tentative Tract that was approved earlier this year by the city Planning Department.
Not every prominent group in the area opposed Il Villaggio Toscano. The Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council voted in May 2012 to support the project, the Daily News reported.
The project will ultimately require City Council approval.
Appeal of CPC-2010-3152-ZC-HD-SPE-SPR-SPP-CUB-1A
http://planning.lacity.org/cts_internet/index.cfm?urlCaseId=192227&caseNumber=CPC-2010-3152-ZC-HD-SPE-SPR-SPP-CUB-1A&fuseaction=case.summary
Final Environmental Impact Report:
http://planning.lacity.org/eir/VillaggioToscano/FEIR/index.html
Coalition to Stop Il Villaggio Toscano
http://stopilvillagiotoscano.wordpress.com/
LADN: Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council approves 399-unit apartment development
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_20628452/sherman-oaks-neighborhood-council-approves-399-unit-apartment
132 Condos May Replace 54-year-old Winnetka Church
The City Planning Commission will consider Thursday whether to approve a plan to demolish the 54-year-old St. John's In The Valley United Methodist Church and replace it with 132 condos. Encino-based Montage Development Corp. needs a General Plan Amendment, Zone Change and several other Zoning Administrator actions. The 4.2-acre site is located in the 20600 block of Roscoe Boulevard in Winnetka.
Planning staff recommends approval of all actions requested and no one spoke against the project during a public hearing in August 2012. The Winnetka Neighborhood Council voted unanimously to support the project as modified by negotiations between Montage and the Winnetka NC Planning and Land Use Management committee.
The CPC meeting this Thursday is at the Van Nuys City Hall's Council Chambers. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m.
Planning Department report to the City Planning Commission:
http://cityplanning.lacity.org/staffrpt/initialrpts/CPC-2012-1363.pdf
Winnetka Neighborhood Council Aug. 14, 2012 Minutes
http://www.winnetkanc.com/Documents/minutes/2012-0814-minutes.pdf
Montage Development
http://www.montagedev.com/index.html
PLUM To Vote on Very Large Small Lot Development in Van Nuys
A proposal to tear down the founding Pinecrest School and replace it with four "traditional single-family homes" and 131 single-family homes in accordance with the Small Lot Ordinance will be considered Tuesday by the City Council's Planning & Land Use Management Committee. The Van Nuys project - which includes a Tentative Tract Map, Zone Change, several Zone Variances and several Zoning Administrator's Adjustments - was already approved by the City Planning Commission in May.
Pinecrest Schools announced sale/closure:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120807005934/en/Pinecrest-Schools-Greater-Los-Angeles-Close-Van