La Canada Bans Hillside Development for 45 Days : Building: The city wants time to study changes in the current hillside ordinance. The moratorium may be extended up to 10 months.

Hillside development in La Canada Flintridge has been halted for at least 45 days under an emergency ordinance adopted Monday night by the City Council.

The council voted 4-0 in favor of the ordinance. Councilman Ed Phelps abstained due to a conflict of interest because his former law firm represented a La Canada Flintridge hillside developer.

The matter was brought before the council at Monday’s meeting by Director of Community Development Bill Campbell, who presented a staff report requesting the council to allow the staff to review the current hillside construction ordinance.

Under the emergency moratorium, the city staff will have 45 days to propose changes in the current hillside ordinance, written in 1979, and schedule public hearings. After that, the City Council may extend the moratorium up to 10 months and 15 days.

The staff’s primary aim is to review the slope density standards, Campbell said.

The emergency ordinance concerns hillside developments on slopes with a 15% grade or steeper. The affected areas are in the northern section of La Canada Flintridge along the San Gabriel Mountains and the southern area at the base of the San Rafael Mountains.

“Technology and the economic value of the land is making hillside development more likely,” said Councilman O. Warren Hilgren. “We as the City Council have a responsibility to the downhill people we represent, who may have to look up at a gigantic wall of masonry.”

The staff report said retaining walls have a negative impact on the city’s hillsides.

“People were building very precipitous buildings with high retaining walls,” City Senior Planner Craig Ewing said. “The character of these buildings was not considered appropriate for La Canada.”

Campbell estimated that at least a dozen proposed projects would be affected by the ordinance.

“All the tough properties are starting to be explored now, so they’re using this technique of retaining walls to move forward on these lots,” he said. “The availability is getting very, very limited, so a lot of these lots that have lain around and haven’t received development pressures are now coming into play.”

The city staff and City Council decided to review the hillside ordinance after a developer applied for a building permit for a hillside property on Robin Hill Road. The permit for the proposed 5,000-square-foot structure on the 35,000-square-foot site was rejected by the planning commission and by the City Council last month.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” said Campbell. “There have been other projects that have gone through a review process, and we’ve raised the issue that there should be something done about this particular standard. This got the attention that we needed.”

Mayor Pro Tem Chris Valente added, “That made us wake up and say, ‘Hey, let’s fill in the cracks of this ordinance.’ Developers aren’t going to be too excited with us, but I feel it’s another important step that we can take together as a council.”