W. Hollywood Ready to Put Zoning Rules Into Effect
There is a gravel-strewn lot on Sunset Boulevard where the Sassony Development Co. once hoped to erect a four-story shopping center and office complex. Instead of a bustling mall, there is only an artist’s depiction, nailed to a small billboard at the front of the lot.
Sassony’s grand plans were frozen in place in November, 1984, when West Hollywood’s fledgling City Council ordered a moratorium on all construction and development. Unable to build and unable to sell the property because of uncertainty over West Hollywood’s intentions, the firm has given up on its $6.5-million project.
‘A Big, Ugly Tree’
“Our attitude right now,” said Judy Lyon, Sassony’s controller, “is to forget about it and plant a tree--a big, ugly tree.”
But now, 14 months after the building freeze started, the moratorium and resulting uncertainty that killed the Sassony project is thawing. Last week, the City Council put the finishing touches on its Interim Zoning Ordinance, a 162-page set of guidelines designed to allow development to start up again in West Hollywood.
On the surface, the city’s new ordinance (which still requires a final council vote) appears identical to zoning laws used by Los Angeles County, which governed West Hollywood until its incorporation just over a year ago.
More Restrictive
But in key sections, the ordinance is more restrictive than the county’s standards--encouraging street-level retail stores and other pedestrian uses, toughening parking requirements, halting the spread of mini-malls, outlawing hotels in residential neighborhoods, increasing the use of public hearings and forcing apartment developers to provide housing for poor families.
“You’re going to see change in West Hollywood, but it’s not going to happen as easily and as rapidly as it did in the past,” said Mark Winogrond, the city’s director of community development.
There is little agreement among West Hollywood’s business leaders about the impact of the new ordinance. Some developers are convinced that it will drive away major development projects to neighboring Los Angeles, while others say the new law will encourage projects appropriate to the “urban village” concept of growth embraced by the City Council.
City officials insist that sections of the ordinance that prove too onerous can be readjusted when the City Council completes its major revision of the city’s General Plan, which will replace the ordinance about 18 months from now.
But officials also admit that unless there are major difficulties, much of the tone set by ordinance can be expected to be carried over into the General Plan.
“We’ll have more than another year or so to adjust the temperature of the water,” said Elwood C. Tescher, the city’s planning consultant during the shaping of the new ordinance. “But the council now has a pretty good idea what kind of development it would like to see in the future.”
When the building freeze was passed, West Hollywood was an attractive place for development. The greatest pressure came from commercial and retail developers, lured by the financial health of stores that lined Sunset and Santa Monica boulevards.
Strong Push
“The push for commercial development has always been strong here,” said Ronald S. Kates, the city’s most influential commercial real estate broker. “Our location next to Beverly Hills and north of Melrose Avenue has always brought a lot of interest. And developers know that stores and restaurants do well in West Hollywood.”
Pressure for major office construction was not as strong, largely because West Hollywood is not close to major highways and because the county government rarely allowed tall office buildings on Sunset, where film and music industry offices predominate.
And residential development, which swept the area in the 1960s and 1970s, transforming West Hollywood from an orderly community of single-family homes and small apartment houses into a warren of apartment complexes, had cooled by 1984.
The interim zoning ordinance will affect each of those types of development, but its greatest impact, city officials and developers say, will be on commercial and retail expansion.
The City Council hopes to encourage commercial development by creating “pedestrian overlay” zones along thoroughfares such as Sunset and Santa Monica, areas where developers will be expected to build with shoppers and consumers in mind.
Windows Required
In these pedestrian zones, developers will have to provide most of their street-level space for stores and restaurants. Display windows will be required along much of the street-level frontages and developers will be encouraged to set back upper floors so that the sidewalks and streets are flooded with sunlight.
“This community wants to see people on the streets, walking along and shopping,” said Mayor John Heilman.
The new ordinance also prohibits developers from building parking lots in front of their buildings, forcing them to bring the frontages out to the sidewalk and putting parking spaces out of public view. Those changes will, in effect, put a halt to the spread of mini-shopping malls, where motorists can drive in and out easily.
That decision will also probably kill the Sassony Development Co.’s shopping center, which, like many mini-malls, planned parking in front of its buildings. “I don’t think this City Council has any love for commercial development,” said Sassony Controller Lyon. “I think it’s going to hurt them as time goes on.”
Other developers worry that the city’s new parking guidelines may be a major impediment to commercial development. In addition to prohibiting parking in front of new buildings, the interim ordinance will force developers to provide more parking when they build new buildings and expand old ones.
New hotels, for example, will have to provide nearly twice the parking spaces that the county had required in its zoning laws. And stringent new parking requirements for restaurants were so tough that developers protested angrily, persuading the council to loosen its standards slightly before the ordinance was discussed publicly last week.
‘Over-Reaction’
Even with that readjustment, some developers say the parking standards will stifle major development. “It’s an over-reaction,” said Banks Montgomery, whose family development firm owns Sunset Plaza, a strip of exclusive stores on Sunset Boulevard. “Sure, we have a parking problem that has to be solved. But these standards will drive local developers to look outside West Hollywood.”
Montgomery and commercial broker Kates said they knew of at least one major hotel development firm that gave up on a project in West Hollywood and relocated to Los Angeles.
The ordinance is expected to have an even more unfavorable impact on office and residential development. Buildings will be limited in most areas to a height of 45 feet (three to four stories), and even with exemptions, will probably not exceed 60 feet (five to six stories). Such height limits allow for moderate office growth, but not the kind of major projects that flourish in Westwood and along the Wilshire Corridor.
There are four areas in which height limits were left unspecified, including the Pacific Design Center lot, where the council is committed to allowing development up to nine stories. Uses in the other areas may eventually include a hotel and a Metro Rail stop.
Residential growth is expected to suffer most from the new guidelines. Although the City Council, hoping to spur residential development, specifically exempted new housing from rent control laws, city officials are pessimistic about new development.
Tough Section
One major obstacle to residential growth may be posed by a section of the interim ordinance that requires developers to provide housing for low- and moderate-income families. When developers build more than 20 units, they must provide at least 20% of their new units for poor and moderate-income families.
“If developers can build under the affordable housing requirements and still make money, they’ll do it,” said Kates. “But I can’t imagine the affordable housing requirement will help the situation.’
Some city officials say that the affordable housing requirement will halt all residential growth. “I think the council may have to take a hard look at affordable housing and either balance it out with some sweeteners for developers or modify it a bit,” one official said.
‘The ordinance had to be strict,” Heilman said. “The community has to be protected while we decide what kind of development we want. We can change it later on. But at least now we have some guidelines, and we have more time.”
