Pasadena : Ban on Hillside Permits

The Board of Directors, plagued in recent months by disputes over development in the Linda Vista Annandale hills, temporarily resolved its problem Tuesday by directing the city manager to stop accepting applications for all hillside development.

The citywide ban on the issuance of hillside conditional use permits took effect after the vote Tuesday and will remain in place until a moratorium is adopted later by the directors.

The action is the second taken this year by the board to stop “mansionization”--expanding smaller homes, or replacing them with larger ones. Under an urgency ordinance passed earlier, no building permits are issued for single-family homes taller than 27 feet or for second-story additions that exceed 50% of the square footage of the first floor.

The temporary bans limit building while city planning staff members devise permanent zoning regulations to address both hillside development and mansionization.