Lomita Weighs New Height Limit on Residences

Lomita City Council members have asked city staff to draw up an ordinance limiting the height of all residential structures in the city to 27 feet, down three feet from the current limit.

The request, made Monday night, for a citywide height limit grew out of a discussion on a separate measure, an amendment to the city’s 1987 view protection law. One of the provisions in the amendment would be to limit the height of residences south of Pacific Coast Highway to 27 feet.

“But 27 feet in the view area,” Councilman Harold Croyts said, “is really what we would like to see throughout the whole city.”

Croyts said the council had talked about lowering the height limit for years, but it wasn’t until recently that the city started to receive complaints about 30-foot-tall residences.

After the staff draws up the proposed ordinance, the Planning Commission will study it and hold public hearings before passing it back to the council for a vote.

In addition to the ordinance, the council considered the proposed amendment to the view protection law, which would move the boundary farther south of Pacific Coast Highway, to where the hilly area of Lomita begins. All homes south of that boundary would be part of the view protection area.

This would exempt flat areas south of Pacific Coast Highway from needing a height variance permit for buildings over 16 feet high. The Building Department traditionally does not receive building height complaints in that area and the exemption would save the city time and money, said City Planner Richard Kawasaki.

It would also save the builder a $300 application fee and the trouble of building a “silhouette” so city workers and neighbors could get a better idea of what the proposed structure would look like.

The proposed amendment also defined what would be considered a view and how much of it could be legally obstructed.

A public hearing on the proposed amendment to the view protection ordinance was scheduled for Oct. 15.