Los Angeles Mansionization Laws

Bowing to the demands of the anti-mansionization crowd, The Los Angeles City Council’s Planning and Use Management committee has approved temporary measures that could be in effect up to two years while the city fully updates the old ordinance.

The Baseline Mansionization Ordinance, which has been in place for years has some loopholes and the city council is looking at enacting stricter rules. It is very important that residents understand the repercussion for having strict building codes that cut down on the square footage of a home being built. Grotesque over-sized mansions on small lots are ugly and should be curtailed. However, strict rules such as stating basements have to count toward the square footage even though they are not visible at street level is a bit extreme.

In specific zip codes, the allowable home size is 50% of the lot size for residential lots less than 7500 square feet. With the size of new homes reduced, the resulting property value may decrease as well. The value of an older home that is purchased with the intention of either building new or enlarging its size is most often a home that is priced at the lower end of the market in a neighborhood, and those homes will likely suffer a reduction in value since the home size that can be built on that site will be reduced.

If you would like more information, here is a good article that appeared in the times last month.

Temporary LA Mansionization rules could be in effect for two years