Council approves temporary tightening of residential zoning rules while permanent changes studied

Burbank City Council enacted an emergency zoning ordinance on Tuesday that temporarily tightens the limits on new homes and additions, at least until council members are able to study and consider more permanent changes to the citys code.

Under state law, which required a four-fifths vote of the council, the limits can remain in effect for 45 days and may be extended for up to two years. Civic groups and residents had been calling for the measure and for more stringent permanent controls to prevent the construction of overly large homes in Burbank neighborhoods.

Council in recent weeks had discussed concepts for the proposed ordinance, giving guidance to city staff in drafting the controls that they hope will close loopholes in the existing code, but it still took a little negotiating on the particulars this week and some last-minute changes to get 5-0 support for the final measure.

Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy advocated against a watered down ordinance and admonished her colleagues for what she said was back-tracking on certain items, but she agreed to changes that would allow for new or expanded homes that do not exceed a 0.40 ratio of floor area to lot size of on lots smaller than 10,000 square feet, even for two-story homes.

In exchange, however, she bargained for inclusion of up to 200 square feet of floor space to be counted into that ratio for garages exceeding 400 square feet, which she argued would keep bulk in check, winning even Mayor David Gordons reluctant approval of the provision, which he had spoken against in earlier meetings.

Council members also agreed to enact second-story setbacks to curb the construction of large, boxy homes, and to allow addition of a porte cochere feature, so long as its only one-story.

One particular sticking point in negotiations was determining what date would be used to establish which projects were already in the pipeline for development, that is, projects exempt from new standards because property owners had already completed substantial planning work on them prior to the ordinance being enacted.

In earlier sessions, council members had discussed using March 10 as the deadline the date they first instructed staff to begin developing the ordinance in order to prevent a rash of hastily planned projects coming in under the wire throughout March and using the soon-to-be closed loopholes in the code to build big, bulky homes.

After hearing from dozens of citizens, several of whom, like Kochendorfer, voiced concerns that the ordinance would halt their ongoing plans to build dream houses or to expand their homes to fit their growing families, council members Gary Bric and Jess Talamantes argued for pushing the deadline back to March 31.

Im just trying to be as fair as possible to everybody, Bric said.

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Council approves temporary tightening of residential zoning rules while permanent changes studied