Backs Flexible Zoning

I appreciated the remarks made by Sam Hall Kaplan in a recent column about West Hollywood’s new courtyard housing regulations (“Welcome Mats Out for New Courtyards,” May 6).

We strongly believe that Los Angeles developers can provide better housing than they have been, and we will try to demonstrate that belief with our rules.

In many ways, we view West Hollywood as an urban design laboratory for Greater Los Angeles. We do not believe that zoning regulations should be rigid and unalterable for decades, but rather should be viewed as fluid and reflective of new knowledge.

We view every project that comes into the office as an experiment in that urban design laboratory, and the Planning Commission and City Council are committed to revising the rules as they learn from those laboratory experiments.

This philosophy will drive developers crazy because we cannot offer them the complete predictability of some other cities. However, it is the only way that we can guarantee the residents (of all income levels) that we will work to provide better housing.

On a more important note, although I appreciated Sam Kaplan quoting me, the majority of the courtyard work was done by Tim Gawronski, the city’s brilliant urban designer. He deserves the real credit.

MARK WINOGROND

Director

Dept. of Community Development

City of West Hollywood