Diamond Bar : Interim Rules for Hillsides

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an interim ordinance requiring residential hillside development to blend in with natural surroundings.

The ordinance, effective for 45 days until a public hearing can be held, sets standards to protect vistas and ensure that streets are “consistent with hillside character,” interim City Planner Irwin Kaplan said.

The council passed the ordinance only after inserting a clause to give some leeway to development projects already being planned that do not conform to the standards. Local developers had expressed concern that the ordinance in its original form would impose a virtual moratorium on projects in the works.