Do Real Planning #10: Neutralize Mansionization

The Los Angeles City Planning Commission has unveiled a 14-point policy agenda to set the city on a course towards sustainability, using Planning Director Gail Goldberg's mantra of "DO REAL PLANNING" as an acronym for the platform. I am blogging each of these planning principles through the lens of my own district work, and I hope that the real-life examples from CD13 can help set citywide direction along these lines.

Many neighborhoods throughout Los Angeles struggle to protect and preserve their unique character. I have supported the creation and expansion of Historic Preservation Overlay Zones in Echo Park. I also support the Planning Department's efforts to create a citywide building-envelope regulation to address mansionization. CD13 has been mostly spared the onslaught of mansionization, the tearing down of existing homes to build much larger ones on the same lot. Nonetheless, we need to protect the unique and historical character and scale of our district's neighborhoods.