Pacific Palisades Clamps Limits on House Sizes
Despite criticism that the guidelines aren’t appropriate for many neighborhoods, the board that governs building design rules in Pacific Palisades has approved a plan to halt the number of “monster homes” being built in the affluent Westside community.
The Pacific Palisades Civic League voted to set a maximum single-family house size of 2,000 square feet plus 28% of the lot size and restrict the height of new and remodeled homes to 28 feet.
The building limits were approved and went into effect this month after nearly a year of study and several heated community meetings. Many residents and two members of the 19-member board, Len Becker and Jack Allen, objected to the guidelines. They said they are too restrictive for some areas of town and too lax for others. They contend that the plan offers no guidelines for specific neighborhoods, where in some cases a large two-story house would be out of character.
“Personally, I think that we should have set a lower standard and then allowed applicants to come in and justify that they need more space,” said board member Allen, one of those who opposed the plan. “The way it’s set up now, projects will slip through that should not be approved merely because the board won’t modify projects even if they aren’t in harmony with the neighborhood.”
Variances Allowed
The criticism prompted the board to allow property owners to seek a variance from the guidelines “based on special circumstances of a particular project,” but Allen said that the amendment did not go far enough. For example, he said building guidelines for homes on narrow streets should be more restrictive than others “because large houses simply wouldn’t fit there.”
Under the plan, a homeowner with a 5,000-square-foot lot would be limited to a 3,400-square-foot house. The biggest home allowed on a 10,000-square-foot lot would be 4,800 square fee. The guidelines also call for a maximum second-story addition of 800 square feet plus 12% of the lot area.
The restrictions were imposed after homeowners bombarded the civic league with complaints about the recent wave of “mansionizing” in the Palisades. The trend to tear down existing homes and build massive houses, nearly filling the lot, has plagued other Westside communities, such as Santa Monica, Brentwood and Beverly Hills, in recent years.
“We couldn’t sit down and figure out every factor, so this is the best compromise we could get,” said board member Ron Dean. “It was a real struggle, and if everybody built up to the guidelines, we would have a mess.
Changes Later
“But we’ve tried to stimulate individuality with these guidelines. I’m not unhappy with them and I’m not happy with them. But later on we’ll probably be better able to tell what changes we need to make.”
Lila Gordon, president of the board, said earlier that the goal was to make the building guidelines more restrictive “because the current guidelines are not working.”
At a meeting earlier this month, several property owners expressed concern that the restrictions would make potential buyers wary and might decrease the value of their homes.
Yet the homeowners agreed unanimously that some stricter guidelines were necessary to keep residential developers from building huge homes to maximize profits during the recent real estate boom.
Current guidelines, approved by the board last year, restrict the height of houses to 32 feet. But there are no other restrictions on the size of new and remodeled homes, and several developers have been tearing down existing homes and building massive houses that look out of place on blocks filled with small two- and three-bedroom properties.
Countywide Problem
During the past three years, the trend toward erecting huge homes has forced city councils and planning boards throughout Los Angeles County to begin grappling with the difficult issue of size restrictions for single-family homes.
The Los Angeles City Planning Commission is studying a proposal to place a 25-foot height limit on house lots under 7,500 square feet. Homes on lots up to 15,000-square-feet would have a height limit of 35 feet. In the city of Los Angeles, the height limit for all single-family homes is 45 feet.
The Palisades guidelines are similar to restrictions proposed in Beverly Hills, where city officials are looking at a cap of 1,500 square feet for homes on small lots plus 35% of the lot size. Two years ago, the Beverly Hills City Council adopted a temporary ordinance limiting the size of houses to 55% of lot size. The council made the ordinance permanent last June to allow the Planning Commission more time to study the proposal.
The Palisades civic league is responsible for design and building guidelines for about 60% of the commercial and residential property in the community, with the rest governed by private deeds.
BUILDING GUIDELINES
The Pacific Palisades Civic League, the board that governs building design rules, has approved a plan to halt the number of “monster homes” in the community. The new guidelines:
* Set a maximum single-family house size of 2,000 square feet plus 28% of the lot size.
* Restrict the height of new and remodeled homes to 28 feet.
* Call for a maximum second-story addition of 800 square feet plus 12% of the lot area.
