Two Los Angeles city councilmen in the heart of “McMansion”-land joined opposition to the new draft Baseline Mansionization Ordinance (BMO). Councilmen David Ryu, 4th District, and Paul Koretz, 5th District, wrote a letter to the Department of City Planning saying that the new draft BMO – which is partly intended to help communities keep the influx of McMansions at bay – undermines the objectives and tasks of creating it in the first place.

The city council directed the city planning department to strengthen laws to prevent McMansions, seen above, but recently released reforms haven’t satisfied local councilmen.
(photo courtesy of 4th District Council Offices)

The original BMO was established in 2008. However after the real estate market rebounded, a rush of developers took advantage of “loopholes” and built homes that are bigger and drastically different from those around them, distorting the neighborhoods they are invading, according to neighborhood councils around Los Angeles, including the Miracle Mile Residential Association.

“Vulnerabilities in the regulations became more apparent,” the city’s planning department said in a release. The BMO was “not as effective at curtailing large-scale homes and construction impacts,” it continued.

In 2015, the city council directed the planning staff to reform the failed BMO. After the first drafted updates were released, city staff collected public comment and released the second draft in April. The second draft varies from the first draft and allows more leeway for developers, according to activists and now Ryu and Koretz, who urged the planning department to revise the draft BMO to achieve its original goal.

“The planning department should revert to the original goal of protecting neighborhoods,” the letter read.

The councilmen asked that the department reinstate certain aspects that were established in prior revisions in regards to bonuses for increased building size, “by-right” grading allowances and certain floor area and basement exemptions.

“After considerable public comment and participation, it is clear that there is overwhelming support for more restrictive changes, and community members are requesting that this ordinance address the most pressing concerns and impacts of mansionization and hillside development,” the letter continued.

Ryu said he heard back from the planning department and said they are well aware of the concerns and will try to incorporate them as the process moves forward. He added that the department will direct additional staff to “to push this as fast as we can” to update the BMO and to establish Interim Control Ordinances (ICO) for neighborhoods in the district. One of the first motions he introduced after taking office was to establish additional ICOs.

“Mansionization was one of the major issues that I promised to work on,” he said. “Our neighborhoods are under siege. Every day we wait, homes are torn down and mansions are being built.”

Nick Maricich, senior planner with the Department of City Planning, said the draft BMO was updated in response to public comments and staff analysis and the first draft was more focused on reducing floor area ratio (FAR) as a strategy to address mansionization. The new draft “gets more into bulk and mass through some tools that shape where the building can go on a lot,” while still including FAR reductions, he said.

He explained that the new draft proposes eliminating certain ceiling exemptions and reducing exemptions for features like porches or patios. Compared to the first draft, the ordinance also eliminates all 20 percent bonus options for larger homes in R-1 zones.

“We are trying to balance the variety of different conditions that we find out there,” he said. “What [characteristics] may be appropriate in terms of garage placement in Mid-Wilshire might be different for a neighborhood in the West Valley. The BMO is a citywide ordinance in which we are trying to weigh these factors citywide.”

He said many of the comments they received so far at the public meetings focus on the push to include the size of the garage in the calculation of a site’s total FAR.

“That’s something we’re going to be taking another look at,” he said.

Shelley Wagers, with the group No More McMansions in Los Angeles, said earlier this month that the new draft raises concerns in terms of effectively closing loopholes and that it introduces a level of complexity the group thinks can make the ordinance more difficult to understand, more difficult to enforce and “easier to game.”

The public is invited to learn more about the proposed amendment and testify at public hearings. For information and details on the draft BMO, visit cityplanning.lacity.org. Written comments may also be submitted directly to Niall Huffman at NeighborhoodConservation@lacity.org. A final public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on May 16 at the Marvin Braude Center, rooms 1a and 1b, at 6262 Van Nuys Blvd. After the staff-level public meetings, the Planning Commission will consider the amendment at a subsequent public hearing and make a recommendation to the city council’s PLUM committee.