This email is to inform you that the City Council unanimously voted to adopt the Hillside Area Definition & Map Ordinance today: 14 Yes, 0 No, and 1 Absent. The two changes that our Department had agreed to make at the June 16, 2009 Planning & Land Use Management Committee meeting were also included as part of the action.

As a result of the 14 Yes votes, a second reading is not needed. The Ordinance will now go to the Mayor’s Office for his approval. If approved by the Mayor, the Ordinance will be posted by the City Clerk’s Office for 10 days and become effective after a mandatory 30-day period. As soon as I receive an official effective date, I will pass on the information to those individuals on this interest list. I will also work with our staff to have the adopted version of the map made available for download on our Department website.

This new Hillside Area definition and map will better reflect the true hillsides throughout the City of Los Angeles. It will provide the protections of the provisions established by the Baseline Mansionization Ordinance for the roughly 51,000 residential lots which are not truly hillside. More importantly, it will leave only the true hillside lots to be addressed by the Baseline Hillside Ordinance. I would also like to reaffirm our pledged to review any proposals for future changes to the new Hillside Area Map during the upcoming outreach efforts, when sufficient evidence is presented.

I want to take the opportunity to thank all of those who have provided input and attended the public meetings for this particular project. Also, now that we have completed this step I can now say that my attention will now be focused almost entirely on the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, and will also involve significant contributions from a team of planners which will help deal with various aspects of hillside development. We look forward to working with you all during the various meetings we have planned for the final part of this revamping of the City’s single-family regulations.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Erick Lopez, City Planner
Department of City Planning
Community Planning Bureau – West Coastal Division
200 N. Spring St., Room 621
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 978-1243
(213) 978-1226 – fax
erick.lopez@lacity.org