On Thursday, February 2, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky attended a meeting of the North East Central Alliance of Neighborhood Councils held at the community meeting room of the Russian Orthodox Church at 650 Micheltorena. There is wide-spread speculation that Yaroslavsky may run for mayor and on Thursday evening he certainly sounded like he was rehearsing a stump speech. Among other things (his lifelong love for the arts, for instance), he talked about the current political push for "upzoning" in Los Angeles (that's when properties are re-zoned from a lower to a higher use).
"There is," Yaroslavsky said, "not a lack of zoning capacity by any means."
He was also asked about protecting hillside areas (like Silver Lake east of Glendale Blvd.), which are zoned for multi-units, from overdevelopment. Such overdevelopment, he said, is "not appropriate."
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Los Angeles and its "density hawks"
From the LA Weekly, 2008:
"In every city in this country, the zone on the land establishes the value of the land. In Los Angeles, that's not true.
"The value of the land is not based on what the zone says ... It's based on what [the] developer believes he can change the zone to.
"This is disastrous for the city.
"Disastrous.
"Zoning has to mean something in this city."
Goldberg probably wishes she hadn't said that, not necessarily because she got reprimanded by L.A.'s famously vindictive Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but because Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy has repeated her words in public, over and over. Yaroslavsky, who represented the city's affluent Westside District 5 as a councilman until 1994, has been staging a one-man campaign to slow City Hall's feverish promotion of density — a quiet war on the large swaths of suburbia and few hunks of countryside remaining inside the city limits. With little debate, a trio of new "density enabling" ordinances (a real mouthful, known as the Downtown Ordinance, the Parking Reduction Ordinance and the Senate Bill 1818 Implementation Ordinance) has rolled through Goldberg's Planning Department and ended up in the ornate council chambers on City Hall's second floor.
Read the rest here: http://www.laweekly.com/2008-02-28/news/bitter-homes-gardens/
City Hall's "Density Hawks" Are Changing L.A.'s DNA
Bitter homes & gardens?
By Steven Leigh Morris
published: February 28, 2008
Said Goldberg, newly arrived here from a similar post in San Diego:"In every city in this country, the zone on the land establishes the value of the land. In Los Angeles, that's not true.
"The value of the land is not based on what the zone says ... It's based on what [the] developer believes he can change the zone to.
"This is disastrous for the city.
"Disastrous.
"Zoning has to mean something in this city."
Goldberg probably wishes she hadn't said that, not necessarily because she got reprimanded by L.A.'s famously vindictive Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, but because Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavksy has repeated her words in public, over and over. Yaroslavsky, who represented the city's affluent Westside District 5 as a councilman until 1994, has been staging a one-man campaign to slow City Hall's feverish promotion of density — a quiet war on the large swaths of suburbia and few hunks of countryside remaining inside the city limits. With little debate, a trio of new "density enabling" ordinances (a real mouthful, known as the Downtown Ordinance, the Parking Reduction Ordinance and the Senate Bill 1818 Implementation Ordinance) has rolled through Goldberg's Planning Department and ended up in the ornate council chambers on City Hall's second floor.
Read the rest here: http://www.laweekly.com/2008-02-28/news/bitter-homes-gardens/
Zev Yaroskavsky's gentler, kinder, less-dense Los Angeles
Published in The Los Angeles Times, 2008:
Don't be dense
The growth policies favored by some city officials threaten L.A.'s livability.
The debate about the availability of housing in Los Angeles and the city's development policies has been testy but long overdue. Fueling public outrage over growth policies that would significantly increase density are well-grounded fears that, in the clash between overdevelopment and neighborhood preservation, the developers will prevail.
Urged on by some elected officials, city planners have decided that the "smart" and "elegant" way to grow the city's housing stock is to double the allowable size of new buildings, bust through established height limits and reduce parking-space requirements -- effectively rolling back more than two decades of neighborhood-protection laws.
Urged on by some elected officials, city planners have decided that the "smart" and "elegant" way to grow the city's housing stock is to double the allowable size of new buildings, bust through established height limits and reduce parking-space requirements -- effectively rolling back more than two decades of neighborhood-protection laws.
There is nothing smart or elegant about such growth. On the contrary. It's development run amok and with an utter disregard for how it affects the livability of the city's neighborhoods. Should these efforts -- the city's version of a state law encouraging greater density; ad hoc zoning changes to double the size of residential development on commercial property to facilitate more density; widespread approval of zoning variances for parking, height and property-line setbacks -- succeed, they will irreparably harm some of our most cherished neighborhoods and diminish our traditional sense of place.
Read the rest here: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/13/opinion/op-yaroslavsky13
Read the rest here: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/13/opinion/op-yaroslavsky13
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
A glimmer of hope?
This email from Erick Lopez, the city planner who seems to be in charge of the anti-mansionzation ordinances, isn't the answer to our desperate prayers. But it did give me pause.
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Wow. Lopez is suggesting that the zoning in our area can be changed - if not quickly, alas. I don't want to pop open a bottle of Champagne, but it's nice to know that one city planner seems to take grassroots action seriously. In practical terms I think it's time to bring our zoning problem before the (full) Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. We need to get moving on our community plan and our zoning.
It's not that the City did not think of this half of Silver Lake was worth protecting, it's that the scope of the project was limited to the Single-Family Zones (R1, RS, RE, and RA). If the majority of the properties in that area are single-family dwellings, there are two ways to address your concern:
1) Rezone all of the properties from R2 to R1 (or some other appropriate Zone), which would also require a General Plan Amendment.2) Establish similar Multi-Family Zone limitations as those in the Northeast Los Angeles Hillside Ordinance, with some changes to be more in line with the new Baseline Hillside Ordinance.
I don't want to give you the impression that either of these solutions is simple, or can be done quickly, but they are two potential options I can think of off the top of my head.On a related and potentially useful topic, our Department is currently trying to build support to fund a comprehensive revision to the entire Zoning Code. The R2 (or Duplex) Zone is one of the things that would be addressed in those efforts. We are thinking of focusing more on the form of development and how that development fits in with its surroundings, in addition to the more conventional land use limitations. One of the primary goals would be to create more of a results-oriented Code.I hope this information helps.
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Wow. Lopez is suggesting that the zoning in our area can be changed - if not quickly, alas. I don't want to pop open a bottle of Champagne, but it's nice to know that one city planner seems to take grassroots action seriously. In practical terms I think it's time to bring our zoning problem before the (full) Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. We need to get moving on our community plan and our zoning.
Our tax dollars at work
I recently wrote a city planner and asked some very specific questions about what kind of houses can be built in our part of Silver Lake (zoned R2-1VL). He instructed me to look at a city website that has no information about our zone (I had already checked) and added: "You can go in person to the zoning counter of the Department of Building and Safety, either downtown or Van Nuys." Why does a Los Angeles resident need to take time out of his/her working day to go downtown or to Van Nuys to learn basic zoning information? Sure, these are tough economic times. But putting zoning information on a website has to be cheaper than paying a city worker to explain zoning to residents face to face. Or are city planners just not interested in sharing information with city residents? I am going to go downtown, but I had to complain.
Garcetti's BIG dreams
Whether you're a fan of Jill Stewart and the Weeklys' owners or not, this article about the controversial Hollywood community plan is a must read - one section states that Garcetti lives in "tree-lined Silver Lake" far from the urban density he champions.
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Should Hollywood Be Skyscrapers?
L.A. developers seek yet another Century City
A new Hollywood activist group
As you may have read here and elsewhere, the city bosses recently rushed through the new Hollywood community plan. The plan has not yet been fully passed, as I wrongly thought, however; it still needs to go through the City Council - so there's some slim hope that it can be changed. The plan has been sharply and vigorously criticized by some vocal Hollywood activists, some of whom have joined together to create a new website, People for Livable Communities. The community plan for our area, the "Silver Lake - Echo Park - Elysian Valley Community Plan," is (according to Silver Lake Neighborhood Council member Elizabeth Bougart-Sharkov) apparently set to be revised sometime soon.
I think it is extremely important that Silver Lake residents stay on top of the revision of our plan, especially if it's true - as the website for People for Liveable Communities states - that "The Hollywood Community Plan is just the first of 35 Community Plans that will cover every part of Los Angeles. It is the template for all the plans that will follow."
I'm going to try to find out when our community plan is scheduled to be redone. Meanwhile, maybe we can learn something from this new Hollywood activist group, which is hellbent on stopping its community plan. Here's a scary image from its website:
I think it is extremely important that Silver Lake residents stay on top of the revision of our plan, especially if it's true - as the website for People for Liveable Communities states - that "The Hollywood Community Plan is just the first of 35 Community Plans that will cover every part of Los Angeles. It is the template for all the plans that will follow."
I'm going to try to find out when our community plan is scheduled to be redone. Meanwhile, maybe we can learn something from this new Hollywood activist group, which is hellbent on stopping its community plan. Here's a scary image from its website:
Mayor Villaraigosa wants what he calls “elegant density”
The City reads your silence as support for this vision.
The Hollywood Community Plan is just the first of 35 Community Plans that will cover every part of Los Angeles. It is the template for all the plans that will follow.
The City reads your silence as support for this vision.
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