Panel Backs Sherman Oaks Size Limits Into ’90

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday approved expanded temporary building restrictions on Sherman Oaks hillsides that will limit the size of houses built on sloping lots.

The measure still must be approved by the City Council, which is expected to consider it in a few months. If signed into law, it will be in effect for one year, until a new set of regulations for hillside building is developed.

The proposed ordinance, which was approved on a 3-2 vote, would extend an ordinance approved last May by the Los Angeles City Council that limited building on Sherman Oaks hillsides between Beverly Glen Boulevard and Camino de la Cumbre. The expanded area will include all hillside property bordered by the San Diego Freeway, Mulholland Drive, Valley Vista Boulevard and Dixie Canyon Avenue.

The new restrictions ban houses taller than 36 feet, require front and back yards to be at least five feet deep and prevent houses from covering more than half of their lots.

In addition, the ordinance included regulations limiting hillside grading and required additional parking spaces for larger houses.

The ordinance, proposed by Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, was prompted by homeowners’ concerns over a developer’s plan to construct about 22 houses along Hopevale Drive, a narrow hillside street. Neighbors said they felt the houses would be disproportionately large.

Several developers at the hearing protested the restrictions as too stringent.

Ralph Gould, a spokesman for CTC Management, which is building the Hopevale Drive homes, called the height restriction unfair. “This is just part of the slow-growth, no-growth attitude,” he said.

Gould said the firm was planning to put houses of less than 2,800 square feet on the 6,000-square-foot lots. “I don’t understand why something like this was even considered,” he said. He added that the new restrictions would reduce the size of the planned houses to less than 2,300 square feet.

Two planning commissioners, Theodore Stein Jr. and Fernando Torres-Gil, voiced reservations about the ordinance, especially because city planners and community leaders are drafting permanent citywide zoning restrictions to regulate hillside building.

“I live in the hillsides of Highland Park, and I’m not convinced that there is a problem in Sherman Oaks that is different from other areas,” Torres-Gil said.

He and Stein voted against the proposal.