Los Angeles banned from building too large houses

On July 14, Los Angeles authorities decided to limit the phenomenon of mansionization - when large, impressive houses are built on small plots.

A similar decision was made a few years ago, it was about the requirement to build new houses or redo old ones only in accordance with the size of the area on which they stand, writes Los Angeles Times.

But local activists said that there was a “loophole” in these laws, which allowed adding additional square meters to houses to bypass the adopted document, moreover, such buildings as garages and covered verandahs were not taken into account mainly in the size of the house, which also created additional opportunities circumvent the law.

After the July 14 hearings, the Los Angeles City Planning Commission endorsed the law changes to eliminate these “loopholes”. In order for the new rules to come into force, the document must support the Los Angeles City Council.

Many of the proposed changes were welcomed by residents of the city who are concerned about the problem of mansionization. For example, the new rules no longer give 20% square meters to a house when using environmentally friendly construction methods. They also reduce the square meters, which, as a rule, were provided for homes in residential areas, reducing the estimated size of the house from 50% to 45% of the plot size.

In addition, the size of the garage located at the front of the house was limited to 200 square meters. feet (18.5 sq. meters), in the back of the yard - 400 sq. feet (37 sq. meters).

Activists say the proposed restrictions are imperfect and are a "middle ground" that still has loopholes and workarounds, while housing industry officials say the rules unfairly limit the size of homes that could house multiple generations of families.

Some residents complain that they will now suffer from penalties, since the information about the restrictions was not delivered to them in time.

One of the residents of Los Angeles complained that he would be penalized for a house in 2600 square. feet (242 square meters.), despite the fact that around his house there are mansions, the size of 4000 square meters. ft (372 sq. meters).

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