Panel Backs Ordinance on Hillside Home Curbs : Development: Measure goes to City Council after approval by Planning Commission. Proposal is under attack from homeowner groups and property owners.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday ended more than 18 months of study by approving a proposed ordinance that would place new conditions on hillside construction of single-family houses throughout the city.

The measure, which now goes to the City Council, has been sharply attacked by leaders of homeowner groups, who say it doesn’t go far enough, and by owners of small vacant lots, who would bear the brunt of the new restrictions.

The ordinance was drafted in response to homeowner complaints that construction on steep hillside lots will lead to sewer and road failures, and that steep hillside streets will be impassible to fire and police vehicles in emergencies.

Homeowner leaders said that as a result of the prolonged building boom in Los Angeles, builders have been turning to lots once thought to be too steep or inaccessible.

The measure increases the number of off-street parking spots required per house and requires that hillside streets be at least 30 feet wide.

It also limits to 40% the amount of a lot that a structure can cover and requires that indoor fire sprinklers be installed in new or greatly expanded houses that are more than 1 1/2 miles from a fire station.

Fire Department officials said sprinklers would reduce the number of times they would have to rush heavy equipment to remote mountain home sites.

The debate Thursday was tepid compared to those that raged when the measure was aired at two previous commission meetings.

A council employee said both sides appeared to be resigned to the likelihood that the commission would pass the ordinance as revised last month. As a result, proponents and opponents were saving their energy for the coming council fight.

The measure has received enthusiastic support from the three council members who represent most of the affected areas--Michael Woo, Marvin Braude and Zev Yaroslavsky.

But most council members have not taken a position.

Owners of vacant land have reacted angrily to the proposed ordinance, saying it unfairly penalizes those who bought lots to build on for themselves or to sell at a profit.

“The real thrust of this ordinance is to stop building by people who have theirs and want no one else” to move into their neighborhood, said Tony Eldridge, a Laurel Canyon landowner.

He and other owners of vacant lots won a victory when the commission decided to exempt those already moving to obtain building permits for hillside construction.

Gordon Murley, a Woodland Hills homeowner activist representing the Federation and Hillside and Canyon Assns., an umbrella group for homeowner associations in and around the Santa Monica Mountains, said the federation supports the ordinance but is hoping the council will remove the exemptions and reduce to 30% or 35% the proportion of a lot that can be built on.

“They’ve watered it down so much we’re not sure it has much protection in it for the hillsides,” he said, “but I guess it’s still a step in the right direction.”