Council Moves to Restrict 'McMansions' in Valley Village

The Los Angeles City Council agreed today to restrict the construction of so-called “McMansions” in more than a dozen residential neighborhoods, while rules that would apply to neighborhoods citywide are crafted.

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The council voted 15-0 to set provisional rules in areas that Councilman Paul Koretz said have been “crying out” for limitations on “large, boxy McMansions, many that go close to the property line.”

Those neighborhoods include El Sereno’s Berkshire Craftsman District, South Hollywood, Valley Village, The Oaks, Larchmont, Sunset Square, Miracle Mile, Old Granada Hills and North Beverly Grove, which Koretz represents.

The design rules, some of which would set how closely a home could be built next to an adjacent one, would still allow people to build slightly bigger homes, Koretz said.

The interim rules could go into effect in 60 days, Koretz said, while it might take as long as 1 1/2 years to create the citywide laws to regulate mansion-building.

“What’s going to happen now is other neighborhoods will start getting more mansionization, and so we’re trying as quickly as possible to pass a citywide mansionization ordinance,” Koretz said.

--City News Service

PHOTO Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.