The Mayor of LA announced today that McMansions were being outlawed because they take up to much of the lot, are boxy, ugly, and ruin the neighborhood.
Let's say Mr. Smith has a 3800 sq ft. McMansion that burns down and he has $100,000.00 of code upgrade coverage.
The city says he can only rebuild 2800 sq feet, because they no longer allow a big box that goes so close to the property line.
Mr. Smith can get 3800 sq feet approved if he goes back with another design. The city will allow 3800 sq feet if he breaks up the profile of the house instead of one large cube and puts one floor partly tucked into the hill/below grade.
These changes will cost $90,000.00 over what the original design would have cost.
Is it covered or not?
LA mayor signs law to limit McMansions in hillsides
Los Angeles has a new law to limit the size of so-called McMansions in hillside communities. The new rules aim to preserve green space, vistas and sunlight by restricting the size of homes going up in LA hillside neighborhoods.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed the ordinance at City Hall Wednesday afternoon with residents from the Sherman Oaks and Nichols Canyon communities looking on.
“There’s nothing more upsetting to those of us who have lived on hillsides than to see completely destroyed by a big box,” Villaraigosa says. “A box that doesn’t reflect the character of the neighborhood. A box that doesn’t reflect the dimensions of the lot.”
The Baseline Hillside Ordinance establishes new regulations for single-family home construction on hillside lots. Backers say it’s designed to prevent large, looming, single-family developments that can undermine the character of existing neighborhoods.
It uses a formula that takes into account parcel size, steepness of slopes and other factors.
“There have been a lot of homes built property-line-to-property-line. It’s called mansionization,” says Ron Ziff of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council, who supports the new limits.
“We’re talking about preserving the hillsides and open spaces for our grandchildren,” Ziff adds. “I like to think of what Frank Lloyd Wright said. He said, ‘a house shouldn’t be on the land, it should be of the land.’”
Officials passed a similar ordinance in 2008 for the city's flatlands.
The hillside ordinance took more work because the steepness of some terrain made it harder to calculate allowable home sizes.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.