Could the days of old houses falling to new, huge mansions be coming to a close in Los Angeles? Probably not, but yesterday the City Council moved to start writing up rules and restrictions that would close long-exploited loopholes in the city's anti-mansionization laws, which regulate the relationship between floor area of new houses and the size of the lot they're on. The plan, which comes as residents in some areas are throwing enormous tantrums about the matter, is to create new rules to help shut down overbuilding in 14 areas where mansionization is supposedly flaring up, while buying some time until new citywide rules are tightened up—a process expected to take about 18 months, says the LA Times.
It's yet to be decided exactly what the restrictions will be for the mansionization "hot spots"; they could range from a full-on ban on demolitions to simply limiting the size of new houses built on teardown lots. But what has been decided is where the need is greatest (or where the neighbors are the loudest?). These 14 areas will be the first to get restrictions on new house construction:
· Sunset Square (bordered by Fairfax to the west, Sunset on the south,Vista on the east, and Hollywood Boulevard to the north)
· Carthay Square
· Holmby-Westwood
· Oxford Square
· El Sereno-Berkshire Craftsman District
· South Hollywood (bordered by McCadden Place on the west, Melrose on the south, June Street to the east, and Willoughby Avenue to the North)
· La Brea Hancock (residential lots with frontage on Sycamore, Orange, Mansfield, and Citrus avenues between West Third Street to the north and Carling Way to the south)
· North Beverly Grove
· The Oaks in Los Feliz
· Valley Village
· Faircrest Heights
· Old Granada Hills
· Larchmont Village
· Miracle Mile
Once the new limits have been set for these neighborhoods, they could last up to two years.
Meanwhile, in West Hollywood West, which is close to many of the areas covered by LA's proposed new regulations, has just gotten new zoning regulations also designed to prevent mansionization.
· L.A. council moves to curb teardowns in 'mansionization' hot spots [LAT]
· LA's Anti-Mansion Crusaders Have Gone Completely Insane [Curbed LA]
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