Hillside Construction Regulations likely coming to additional residential neighborhoods in Bel Air–Beverly Crest & NELA
While most of the Los Angeles residential development industry has been watching the proposed Wildlife Ordinance make its way through the byzantine review process, two proposed ordinances have quietly reached the precipice of enactment which could impact thousands of residential properties in several of the city’s Hillside neighborhoods.
These ordinances are only a couple of steps away from adding the Hillside Construction Regulations (HCR) overlay to neighborhoods in the Northeast Los Angeles and Bel Air – Beverly Crest community plan areas.
As a reminder, the HCR overlay limits by-right grading (6,000 or 4,500 CY depending upon the width of the access streets) and residential floor area (17,500 SF). Any project proposing more grading and/or more floor area would require a discretionary approval from City Planning. And the HCR overlay imposes several construction and hauling conditions, regardless of project size.
The HCR overlay has already been approved for multiple residential neighborhoods in Bel Air, Laurel Canyon and the Bird Streets in Hollywood.
Here is the latest on the proposed expansion of HCR regulations:
Bel-Air / Beverly Crest
An HCR overlay was approved by the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee last week for residentially zoned properties in the Franklin Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, and Bowmont Hazen residential neighborhoods (map).
This is actually the second time this ordinance was approved by PLUM. Last month’s approval had to be redone because of a paperwork error. The latest version is expected to be approved by the City Council in the next couple of weeks and sent to Mayor Bass for her signature. The ordinance was endorsed by the City Planning Commission in November.
There is currently no “Urgency Clause” on this proposed ordinance. Presuming it is approved as written, that means the HCR regulations could take effect in as little as 6 weeks from today.
Northeast Los Angeles
An HCR overlay was approved by the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee last week for the residentially zoned properties in Hillside areas of the Northeast Los Angeles Community Planning area (map), including but not limited to Mt. Washington, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, and Montecito Heights.
Because the NELA area includes several Specific Plans and Historic Preservation Overlay Zones already, the proposed ordinance to add HCR to this area includes changes to the citywide HCR regulations to allow for these construction limitations to apply to areas already located within a SP or HPOZ. Still, wherever the provisions of the HCR conflict with those of a Specific Plan or HPOZ, then the provisions of the Specific Plan or HPOZ take precedence, according to this draft ordinance.
As with the Bel Air – Beverly Crest ordinance, PLUM had to approve the draft ordinance twice because of a paperwork error. The latest version is expected to be approved by the City Council in the next couple of weeks and sent to Mayor Bass for her signature. The ordinance was endorsed by the City Planning Commission in November.
There is currently no “Urgency Clause” on this proposed ordinance. Presuming it is approved as written, that means the HCR regulations could take effect in as little as 6 weeks from today.
