City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning Notice of Public Hearing

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1 City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning Notice of Public Hearing Code Amendment: CPC CA Zone Change: CPC ZC Environmental Case: ENV EAF wy r dd Mulholla n San Dieg of The City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning will hold a Public Hearing regarding the adoption of a new Supplemental Use District (SUD) and the application of this SUD to the Bel Air neighborhood. The proposed new Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area (ESHA) District applied to the Bel Air neighborhood is being considered to address community concerns regarding construction impacts of large-scale singlefamily home developments in the hillsides. 405 Information on both the proposed new Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area District and the Zone Change Ordinance to apply the ESHA District to the Bel Air neighborhood, will be available for review at the Public Hearing and online at under What s New. For questions, please contact project staff: Christine Saponara, or Giselle Corella, Sepulveda Bl vd The proposed Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area (ESHA) District will establish development standards regulating grading limits and hauling operation standards to areas that adopt the overlay. The ESHA District regulations will require single-family home development projects 20,000 square feet or larger within the district to go through a review process and will mandate standard hauling operations for all single family home developments as conditions of project approval. Su ns B et l vd or mail written communication to: ESHA Overlay District, Department of City Planning 200 N. Spring Street, Room 667, Los Angeles CA christine.saponara@lacity.org or giselle.corella@lacity.org Bel Air neighborhood DATA SOURCES: DEPARTMENT OF CITY PLANNING-DEPARTMENT & BUREAU OF ENGINEERING The Department of City Planning invites your testimony or written comments. Written communications should be received in the Department of City Planning as soon as possible. In order that all viewpoints may be presented, speakers at the hearing may be limited in the length of their presentations. Because of time constraints and to minimize repetition, the Department encourages presentations by representatives of organized groups, in-lieu of many individual speakers. Written correspondence citing the Case number stated at the top of this notice may be mailed to: Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Room 667, 200 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, CA Copies of the staff report, following the hearing, will be available upon request. Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies If you challenge this matter in court, you may be limited to those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence on the matter delivered to this agency at, or prior to the public hearing. Any written correspondence delivered to the Department before the Planning Commission s action on the matter will become a part of the administrative record. Note this may not be the last hearing on this matter. As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability. The hearing facility and its parking are wheelchair accessible. Sign language interpreters, assistive listening devices, or other auxiliary aids and/or other services may be provided upon request. To ensure availability of services, please make your request no later than three working days (72 hours) prior to the hearing, by calling Christine Saponara at The City of Los Angeles is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

2 Los Angeles Department of City Planning 200 North Spring Street, Room 667 Los Angeles, CA PRESORTED FIRST CLASS MAIL US POSTAGE PAID LOS ANGELES, CA PERMIT City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning Notice of Public Hearing Bel Air Public Hearing: Friar St Thursday, December 15, 2016 Public Hearing after 8:30 a.m. Location: Van Nuys Blvd Sylvan St Sylmar Av Van Nuys City Hall Council Chamber 2nd Floor Sylvan Street Van Nuys, CA Erwin St Van Nuys City Hall Sylvan Street Van Nuys, CA 91401

3 Department of City Planning ENVIRONMENTALLY SENSITIVE HILLSIDE AREA ESHA SUPPLEMENTAL USE DISTRICT ORDINANCE Code Amendment and Zone Change Q&A November 18, 2016 CPC CA CPC ZC ENV EAF What is a Supplemental Use District (SUD)? A Supplemental Use District (SUD) is a zoning tool that enables communities to have tailored zoning to preserve, enhance, or protect unique qualities of a specific community. Unlike the base zone, a SUD addresses very specific issues. Shown as a suffix to the base zone, a SUD creates additional regulations on top of regulations to the base zone. What is the Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area ESHA District? What does it regulate? The Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area ESHA District is a SUD that regulates large single-family developments 20,000 square feet or larger, grading maximums, hauling operations, and/or construction activity in residential hillside areas. When applied to a specific area, the SUD looks at the cumulative construction related impacts of large-scale hillside developments. The main components of the ESHA District include: Department of City Planning Discretionary Review of Large Homes Single-family home developments with a cumulative Residential Floor Area of 20,000 square feet or larger are now required to go through a review process with the City Planning Department. Single-family home developments smaller than 20,000 square feet may proceed with the current process by proceeding directly to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS). Maximum Grading All single-family residential zones are limited to Cut and Fill by-right grading quantity maximums not to exceed 6,000 cubic yards. All single-family residential zones abutting a substandard street are limited to Import or Export 75% of the by-right grading quantity maximums not to exceed 6,000 cubic yards. Page 1 of 4

4 Hauling Operation Standards and Construction Activity Standard conditions typically imposed by the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners during the Haul Route Approval process shall be required for all applicable hauling activity within the ESHA District. Hauling operations shall be conducted between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Trucks shall not arrive at the site before 9:00 a.m. No hauling operations shall be conducted on weekends or State designated holidays. Trucks shall not arrive or stage before 9:00 a.m. Construction activity permitted between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Interior construction work permitted 8:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, exterior construction work on Saturday is strictly prohibited. No illumination of the exterior of the site allowed after 6:00 p.m. How did the Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area ESHA District get initiated? Community members have expressed their growing public safety concerns regarding development and construction activity in the hillside areas. Large single-family home developments generate dozens of haul trips. Multiple small and large single-family developments when clustered in the same neighborhood produce even more hauling vehicles on the road. These haul trips are the result of grading activity. With today s current regulations specific hauling conditions are only imposed on projects needing Haul Route Approval. Projects grading 1,000 cubic yards or more need to go through the Haul Route Approval process and that process imposes certain identification, haul trip logging, precaution signs, etc. as conditions of Haul Route Approval to obtain a grading permit. With the new ESHA District, some of the hauling operation standards of a Haul Route Approval will be imposed on projects that do not meet the threshold to obtain a Haul Route Approval because certain neighborhoods need additional protection from hauling and construction activity. How does the Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area ESHA District compare to the current Baseline Hillside Regulations? As the ESHA District is a Supplemental Use District, properties located within the ESHA District are still required to comply with regulations of the base zone. As described below, the ESHA District will need to comply with the 2011 Baseline Hillside Ordinance (BHO) regulations and any amendments to it, in addition to the ESHA District regulations. Current and Proposed Baseline Hillside Regulations The BHO is currently being amended. Under the current BHO there are exemptions for Cut and Fill underneath a structure. Thus, the exemptions Page 2 of 4

5 unintentionally cause more grading. Current proposed amendments to the 2011 BHO will address excessive grading through elimination of exemptions. The byright grading quantity maximums for the current 2011 BHO and proposed amendment to the 2011 BHO are as follows: Zone EXISTING 2011 BHO Maximum By-Right Grading Quantity (cubic yards) PROPOSED Amendment to BHO Maximum By-Right Grading Quantity (cubic yards) R1 1,000 2,000 RS 1,100 2,300 RE9 1,200 2,400 RE11 1,400 2,800 RE15 1,600 3,200 RE20 2,000 4,000 RE40 3,300 6,600 RA 1,800 3,600 The formula for maximum grading allowed is calculated as follows: Existing 2011 BHO: 500 cubic yards plus the numeric value equal to 5% of the lot size in cubic yards. Example: a 5,000 square foot (s.f.) lot will have a by-right maximum grading quantity of 750 cubic yards. The 750 was calculated as 500 cubic yards cubic yards (numeric value of 5% of 5,000 s.f. lot ). Proposed Amendment to the 2011 BHO: 1,000 cubic yards plus the numeric value equal to 10% of the lot size in cubic yards. Example: a 5,000 s.f. lot will have a by-right maximum grading quantity of 1,500 cubic yards. The 1,500 was calculated as 1,000 cubic yards cubic yards (numeric value of 10% of 5,000 s.f. lot ). In conjunction with counting the previously exempted grading in the proposed BHO amendment, the proposed BHO amendment will modify the allowed Import/Export quantities as follows: Standard Hillside Limited Streets and larger up to the maximum by-right grading quantities. Example: a 5,000 s.f. lot will have a by-right maximum grading quantity Import or Export of earth of 1,500 cubic yards. The 1,500 was calculated as 1,000 cubic yards cubic yards (numeric value of 10% of 5,000 s.f. lot ) to reach the by-right grading quantity maximum. Substandard Hillside Limited Streets up to 75 percent of the maximum by-right grading quantities. Example: a 5,000 s.f. lot will have a by-right maximum grading quantity Import or Export of earth of 1,500 cubic yards. The 1,500 was calculated as 1,000 cubic yards cubic yards (numeric value of 10% of 5,000 s.f. lot ) to reach the by-right grading quantity maximum, however, since it is by a Substandard Hillside Limited Street, the Page 3 of 4

6 actual maximum grading quantity Import or Export of earth permitted is 1,125 cubic yards. ESHA District Regulations Properties within the ESHA District are still required to comply with the current Baseline Hillside regulations and will need to comply to any future amendments to the BHO when they are adopted. The main addition to the BHO grading regulations include: The maximum by-right grading quantity is 6,000 cubic yards which is less than the Proposed BHO at 6,600 cubic yards. Where could the Environmentally Sensitive Hillside Area ESHA District be applied? The ESHA District may be applied to residential hillside areas. Residential hillside areas that are particularly sensitive to construction activity may have this SUD applied to the area. The purpose of the ESHA is to impose more restrictive grading limits and hauling operation standards than normally permitted by the base zone to further protect the community from excessive grading, hauling, and construction activity. The Bel Air neighborhood is the first community to have the ESHA District proposed to their area. As a follow-up to the Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) adopted in 2015, which expires in March 2017, this ESHA SUD codifies the Bel Air ICO regulation to limit the import and export of exempted graded earth to 6,000 cubic yards. In addition to the ICO request, additional regulations are included in the ESHA SUD so that it may be applied to other neighborhoods. What are the next steps? How can I share my input? The City Planning Commission will consider the Code Amendment and Zone Change at a public meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 15, 2016, at Van Nuys City Hall in the Council Chamber located at Sylvan Street Van Nuys, CA after 8:30 a.m. The City Planning Commission (CPC) will make a recommendation to the City Council and will then be considered by the City Council s Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee, followed by the full City Council. The Staff Recommendation Report to CPC will be available online. Please direct comments on the CPC Staff Recommendation Report to CPC@lacity.org and staff at christine.saponara@lacity.org and/or giselle.corella@lacity.org. When ing please include the corresponding case numbers: Code Amendment CPC CA; Zone Change Ordinance for the ESHA to be applied to the Bel Air neighborhood CPC ZC; Environmental: ENV EAF. Page 4 of 4