Los Angeles City voted to curb demolitions and mansionization
Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted Tuesday to draft rules that would temporarily curb demolitions in more than a dozen neighborhoods where residents have bemoaned “mansionization” – homes being knocked down and replaced with bigger buildings seen as too large for their lots.
The photo above is a prime example of one current mansionization. This is 363 N Sweetzer Ave, Los Angeles, California 90048. This is the house next door to my old home. The photo on the left is a three bedroom, two bath, 1,500 square foot Spanish home built in 1928 and completely renovated in 1995 after the 1994 earthquake. It sold for $1.2M in 2013.
The photo on the right is the home they have almost finished building after razing the existing home. As per the builder it will be a “Custom state of the art pool home adjacent to Beverly Hills and Hancock Park. This home features four bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms with almost 4,000 sq ft of living area. This home will have a state of the art Viking kitchen, an open floor plan with high ceilings and a custom pool with (sic) jaccuzzi.”
This huge two story plus modern boxy home does not conform to the neighborhood of smaller Spanish and traditional homes. It’s almost triple the size. If I still lived next door to this home, I would have lost all my outdoor privacy even with my eight foot fences. I also would have lost a lot of light and the view of the mountains.
What’s even worse is this builder could have built an even bigger home if he wanted. This area of North Beverly Grove has a FAR (floor area ratio) of 3:1. Most residential neighborhoods have a .5:1 or 1:1 at most. This builder could have built a 9,126 square foot 33' tall home on this 50' x 150' 6,500 square foot lot! Some people have actually done this!
The problem here is old zoning on the books. There are some two to four unit properties in the area. Farther north, south and east there are some eight unit apartment buildings. A FAR of 3:1 is the proper FAR for apartment buildings, not homes. When they down zoned the area to R1, R2 from R4 they should have reduced the FAR to 1:1.
Here in Los Angeles City this R1 lot has a 25' front setback, 5' side setbacks, 15' rear setback, 33' maximum height (three stories), mandatory two car garage or carport. The lot is 50' x 150'. In theory you could have a three story square block home with built in garage or a maximum of 9,126 sf GLA (gross living area). Here is the specific zoning ordinance for R1 residential.
http://cityplanning.lacity.org/zone_code/Appendices/sum_of_zone.pdf
The FAR should be reduced to 1:1. In this instance a 6,500 sf lot with a FAR of 1:1 could have a 3,600 sf home. That is plenty big for this sized lot. In some areas of the US the FAR in residential areas is .5:1. A FAR of 1:1 is generous.
I’m not against anyone who wants a big home. If someone wants a bigger home, they should buy that bigger home in parts of the city which have bigger homes on bigger lots such as parts of Hancock Park or Beverly Hills North of Santa Monica Blvd. When cities are originally laid out they plan some areas for bigger homes on bigger lots. Other areas are planned and zoned for average homes on average sized lots, commercial, industrial, agricultural, open space…
From a buyer, investor point of view buying an average sized home in good condition for $1.2M, tearing it down, building a huge modern out of place home will not give you the best return on your investment. This is based on the theory of conformity i.e., “the theory that a particular home achieves its maximum value when surrounded by homes of similar style and function.” It would be a better investment to buy a bigger home in an area of bigger homes and lots.
I’m happy the City of Los Angeles will be changing the FAR and a few other things in their planning and zoning code. This should have been done when they down zoned the area many years ago. Someone just forgot to change the FAR in R1, R2 zones.
I grew up in Beverly Hills, California. They had this same problem in the 1980's. I wrote an article about that here
Beverly Hills got their act together and changed the FAR besides adding design approval and a few other things. Take a look at the pics of McMansions in my article, atrocious! No one wants one of those next to them.
I will leave you with this photo of a house on Schumacher in Los Angeles 90048. This house is the reason they put a historical overlay over this zone…this specific house! This person built a “castle” in Los Angeles. This is not Disneyland. Zoning and planning department’s purpose is to set conformity standards for this reason. One man’s “castle” is another man’s nightmare neighbor home.
