Site-Specific Designations are Ready for Their Close-Up

Last week, KCET's "Laws that Shaped L.A." series turned its focus toward the myriad of exceptions- in the form of special overlays and site-specific designations known as Q, T, and D conditions- to the Los Angeles Zoning Code that present a more complex picture of the city's zoning regulations than a quick glance at the traditional Euclidian model would suggest. See Ordinance 139901. According to James Brasuell, more than 60% of the City of Los Angeles is affected by these overlays, creating actual Angeleno zoning and land use policies that are quite different from their appearance on paper. Proponents of these designations, the most common of which are "Q conditions" that place restrictions on developable lots to ensure compatibility with surrounding properties, claim that they allow for the flexibility necessary in an urban environment like L.A. that are not always well-suited to the Euclidian patterns most commonly used in the suburbs. Examples of Q condition "successes" include restrictions in the rapidly changing Echo Park neighborhood than require commercial properties to have direct street frontage, encouraging walkability and busting the Southern California strip mall stereotype. Opponents argue that the "exceptions" to zoning that have

Image Credit: Los Angeles Dep't of City Planning

effectively become the Los Angeles rule hinder transparency and consistency in the zoning approval process and favor those with intimate knowledge of the Zoning Code's inner workings, which is a veritable maze to navigate. Still others have charged that the many exceptions make the Code's true policy aims too opaque and muddle the worthy cause of shaping an L.A. cityscape that more closely mirrors urbanist goals such as walkability, access to transit, less dependency on cars, etc. and have contributed to the proliferation of the City's and region's sprawling, erratic, and auto-centric development.

Brasuell reports that the quiet furor raised over the more arcane aspects of the Zoning Code has resulted in the City recruiting various consulting firms to assess the Code and provide recommendations about a overhaul to increase Code transparency and predictability. Possible solutions may draw inspiration from the much-lauded Denver model, which is "a 'context-based code' hybrid between Euclidian and form-based codes." Such a shift would still allow for flexibility in a city that is both vast in land area and diverse in population and needs while steering away from a model where more than half of the city's lots are affected by Code exceptions and provisions that are unknown to many going through the approval process. As Los Angeles is likely not the only city with so many "hidden" zoning designations, perhaps the city's consideration changes to its zoning code will be the impetus for other municipalities lacking transparency to entertain the possibility of hybrid zoning.