For the last 18 months I tracked how the city dealt with the illegal conversion of a single-family home into a three-apartment tenement and wrote it as a 16-part mystery called "Whodunit: Who's Killing My Neighborhood?"
Now, I learn from a second-hand viral email with the subject line "Accessory Dwelling Units" that it isn't a mystery at all.
The City of Los Angeles is killing my neighborhood of single-family homes -- and yours, too.
The email originated from Sylvia Lacy, senior deputy in Councilman Herb Wesson's 10th District Field Office.
Now, I learn from a second-hand viral email with the subject line "Accessory Dwelling Units" that it isn't a mystery at all.
The City of Los Angeles is killing my neighborhood of single-family homes -- and yours, too.
The email originated from Sylvia Lacy, senior deputy in Councilman Herb Wesson's 10th District Field Office.
Hello to all, the attached notices are concerning the accessory dwelling
unit outreach in preparation for the City of Los Angeles to draft an
ordinance to comply with SB 1866 (sic AB 1866). Questions should go to Gabriela
Juárez at gabriela.juarez@lacity.org or (213) 978-1337.
If you have any comments or concerns please send them to me. If your
neighborhood or Neighborhood Council has taken a position, please let me
know. Thanks
Sylvia Lacy
unit outreach in preparation for the City of Los Angeles to draft an
ordinance to comply with SB 1866 (sic AB 1866). Questions should go to Gabriela
Juárez at gabriela.juarez@lacity.org or (213) 978-1337.
If you have any comments or concerns please send them to me. If your
neighborhood or Neighborhood Council has taken a position, please let me
know. Thanks
Sylvia Lacy
Here are the attachments (FAQs.pdf), (WorkshopNotice.pdf), (INTERIM DEPARTMENTAL GUIDELINES FOR ACCESSORY DWELLING UNITS.pdf).
The FAQ from the Planning Department explained clearly what an accessory dwelling unit is:
Q:. What is an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)?
A: An Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), also referred to as a granny flat, secondary dwelling unit, cottage housing opportunity {ECH0), or other-daughter residence, is an apartment that can be located within the walls of an existing or newly constructed single-family home or can be an add-on to an existing home.It can also be a freestanding structure on the same lot as the principal dwelling or the conversion of a garage or a barn.
In other words, the tenement conversion in my neighborhood is about to become legal in every neighborhood in the city -- every neighborhood except those "in a Hillside area, Equinekeeping District, along a Scenic Highway designated in the General Plan, or where the width of the adjacent street is substandard," according to the Interim Guidelines.
Unbelievable, I thought. Now, I almost feel sorry for the couple that got fined $10,000 for converting the house in my neighborhood into a three-apartment tenement. It turns about they were premature and not greedy enough. If they had waited until this is enacted, they could have filled in the swimming pool in back and put up another building with two more units for a total of five.
The person who sent me Sylvia Lacy's email sounded this alarm: "To add to the seemingly endless number of issues we must consider. It looks like the state mandated "granny flats" within R1 areas (with some limitations - see attached). It looks to me like this is one step toward the elimination of true single-family neighborhoods."
It's been coming for a while.
The state legislation that makes this possible was AB 1866, a density bonus/affordable housing measure that took effect July 1 2003 with bipartisan support and the support of then Assemblymen Paul Koretz and Herb Wesson and then Sen. Richard Alarcon -- all now City Council members.
The FAQ from the Planning Department says this measure is being developed "in response" to AB 1866. No one should be misled by the phrase into thinking the legislation "requires" the city to destroy single-family home neighborhoods. Here's what the law says:
SEC. 2. Section 65852.2 of the Government Code is amended to read:65852.2. (a) (1) Any local agency may, by ordinance, provide for the creation of second units in single-family and multifamily residential zones.
"MAY" -- that's the operative word.
So the City of LA is doing this because it wants to. It is exempting "hillside" neighborhoods because it wants to.
Understand, this is the same Planning Department that wants to increase the fees for homeowners and community groups to appeal its decisions on development projects by up to 2,000 percent.
It already has held two public meetings on this at the Yucca Community Center and the Braude Constituent Services Center and plans only one more on Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 am - 2 pm at the David M. Gonzales/Pacoima Recreation Center, 10943 Herrick Avenue in Arleta.
The workshop notice says that for more information, please contact Gabriela Juárez at (213) 978-1337 or by email at gabriela.juarez@lacity.org.
Can there be any doubt that the city is at war with the middle class, with home owners, with the ordinary people who pay most of the city's bills?
Aren't there laws against this sort of discriminatory conduct? Doesn't the Constitution protect us all equally from the actions of government?
I guess it really is time to move as so many people are saying. Or to fight.
It's a lousy time to sell a house so fight we must -- or maybe just convert our houses in tenements, reap the profits and let the city go to hell.
The FAQ from the Planning Department explained clearly what an accessory dwelling unit is:
Q:. What is an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)?
A: An Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), also referred to as a granny flat, secondary dwelling unit, cottage housing opportunity {ECH0), or other-daughter residence, is an apartment that can be located within the walls of an existing or newly constructed single-family home or can be an add-on to an existing home.It can also be a freestanding structure on the same lot as the principal dwelling or the conversion of a garage or a barn.
In other words, the tenement conversion in my neighborhood is about to become legal in every neighborhood in the city -- every neighborhood except those "in a Hillside area, Equinekeeping District, along a Scenic Highway designated in the General Plan, or where the width of the adjacent street is substandard," according to the Interim Guidelines.
Unbelievable, I thought. Now, I almost feel sorry for the couple that got fined $10,000 for converting the house in my neighborhood into a three-apartment tenement. It turns about they were premature and not greedy enough. If they had waited until this is enacted, they could have filled in the swimming pool in back and put up another building with two more units for a total of five.
The person who sent me Sylvia Lacy's email sounded this alarm: "To add to the seemingly endless number of issues we must consider. It looks like the state mandated "granny flats" within R1 areas (with some limitations - see attached). It looks to me like this is one step toward the elimination of true single-family neighborhoods."
It's been coming for a while.
The state legislation that makes this possible was AB 1866, a density bonus/affordable housing measure that took effect July 1 2003 with bipartisan support and the support of then Assemblymen Paul Koretz and Herb Wesson and then Sen. Richard Alarcon -- all now City Council members.
The FAQ from the Planning Department says this measure is being developed "in response" to AB 1866. No one should be misled by the phrase into thinking the legislation "requires" the city to destroy single-family home neighborhoods. Here's what the law says:
SEC. 2. Section 65852.2 of the Government Code is amended to read:65852.2. (a) (1) Any local agency may, by ordinance, provide for the creation of second units in single-family and multifamily residential zones.
"MAY" -- that's the operative word.
So the City of LA is doing this because it wants to. It is exempting "hillside" neighborhoods because it wants to.
Understand, this is the same Planning Department that wants to increase the fees for homeowners and community groups to appeal its decisions on development projects by up to 2,000 percent.
It already has held two public meetings on this at the Yucca Community Center and the Braude Constituent Services Center and plans only one more on Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 am - 2 pm at the David M. Gonzales/Pacoima Recreation Center, 10943 Herrick Avenue in Arleta.
The workshop notice says that for more information, please contact Gabriela Juárez at (213) 978-1337 or by email at gabriela.juarez@lacity.org.
Can there be any doubt that the city is at war with the middle class, with home owners, with the ordinary people who pay most of the city's bills?
Aren't there laws against this sort of discriminatory conduct? Doesn't the Constitution protect us all equally from the actions of government?
I guess it really is time to move as so many people are saying. Or to fight.
It's a lousy time to sell a house so fight we must -- or maybe just convert our houses in tenements, reap the profits and let the city go to hell.
Ron Kaye