Monterey Park : Building Rules Tightened

Trying to scale down home sizes without scaring away development, the City Council on Tuesday tightened building standards to reduce the bulk of single-family houses.

Under the new rules, houses on lots of less than 6,000 square feet can cover up to 50% of the lot. On lots of between 6,000 and 10,000 square feet, a house can be 3,000 square feet or cover 40%, whichever is greater. On lots bigger than 10,000 square feet, a house can be 4,000 square feet or cover 35% of the lot, whichever is greater.

However, those standards only apply to projects of four or fewer homes. A proposal to build 86 houses on the city’s largest chunk of vacant land, the Monterey Views development, will be exempt.

All new developments must comply with portions of the new law banning exterior stairways and requiring three-car garages for homes larger than 3,000 square feet.