ACTION ALERT: McMANSIONIZATION - The January 11, 2016, deadline is coming up fast SO PLEASE send your comments to L.A. City Planning and Councilman Bonin ASAP --- E-mails: Subject line - BMO/BHO Amendments, CF #14-0656 --- Send to: mike.bonin@lacity.org, paul.koretz@lacity.org, Hagu.Solomon-Cary@lacity.org, mcmansionsurvey@gmail.com, eric.garcetti@lacity.org, IMPORTANT TALKING AND WRITING POINTS: - Loopholes ruined the mansionization ordinance in 2008, and the city has paid a heavy price ever since. The Planning Department’s draft amendments make a very good start, but they need a few crucial changes: - Uncovered patios, breezeways, and balconies must be counted as floor space. --- Uncovered or “lattice roof” patios, breezeways, and balconies are not counted as floor space. This is just the kind of loophole that turns houses into McMansions. With or without a regular roof, these spaces add bulk. We need to totally close this exemption and count all such structures as floor space. -- The “proportional stories” bonus must be based on the net footprint of the first floor, excluding any uncounted floor space. And bonuses should be subject to public review by the Planning Department. --- The “proportional stories” bonus should go. If retained in any form, it should not awarded by-right by Building and Safety, but should become a discretionary entitlement handled through City Planning. The City Council directive to City Planning was clear that any bonus that promoted mansionization should go, and this bonus can add 600 square feet to the size of a “small” house. In some cases this might be warranted, but it needs to be carefully reviewed by City Planning through a public hearing that results in an appealable written determination. --- A Zoning Administrator needs to spell out the case in detail for granting or rejecting a request to increase the size of a house through the proportional stories method. -- The City already offers variances and is now creating many other flexible zoning tools and options. Get rid of discretionary 10 percent “adjustments” made by zoning administrators. --- Zoning Administrators can grant “Adjustments” of 10 percent behind closed doors. The city already has a process for variances, and now it is also creating many zoning tools tailored to the needs of individual neighborhoods. We do NOT need additional “adjustments” that increase the size of houses. - The city got mansionization very wrong the first time. This time, we need to get it right. And we have no time to lose. --- The city’s Baseline Mansionization Ordinance and Baseline Hillside Ordinance (BMO/BHO) failed. As a result, mansionization is ruining neighborhoods all over Los Angeles. Now the Planning Department has proposed important amendments to these two ordinances. This time, however, City Planning needs to get it completely right, NOT – as before – which is to still permit McMansions through backdoor loopholes. - Mansionization eliminates affordable single-family neighborhoods in Los Angeles. The speculators target smaller, affordable houses and replace them with McMansions that are, on average, three times the size and price. They are now eliminating about 2000 such affordable houses per year, and this will continue until it is finally stopped.