City Studies Mansionization Community Meetings, Considers If Building Code Changes Are Needed

Pasadena’s Department of Planning and Community Development has wrapped up ten months of community meetings focused on “mansionization” effect in local neighborhoods and is now analyzing results before recommending changes to the city’s zoning code, if it finds that necessary.

The meetings were prompted by a number of recent projects many residents say do not appear compatible with the character of the older established neighborhoods that composed much of the city’s residential areas.

Pasadena Heritage earlier this year said many of the new projects are “horribly out of scale and character with their surrounding neighborhoods.”

In September last year, the Pasadena City Council directed the Planning Department to study the issue of neighborhood compatibility in single-family residential zones.

Reporting about the community meetings, Vincent P. Bertoni, Director of Planning and Community Development, told City Manager Michael J. Beck that aside from the eight community meetings, there was also one presentation to the Northwest Commission as part of the comprehensive outreach plan.

The community meetings were held from March to June in each council district and were attended by over 400 residents. Comments from the public are now being analyzed and will be shared with the Planning Commission as an informational item before the end of summer.

Bertoni summarized the consultation process and laid out the next steps for three phases of the Mansionization Code Revision study.

Phase 1 involves the Lower Hastings Ranch neighborhood where a City Council-adopted moratorium prohibits demolitions of more than 50 percent of a structure’s exterior walls, second-story development or second-story additions of any size, and large single-story additions or single-story detached accessory structures. The moratorium has been extended through March 2016.

Phase 2 covers non-hillside, non-historic single-family homes, which covers a large part of Pasadena. Additional opportunities for public comments are still available during the Planning Commission Study Sessions, after which draft regulations will be submitted to the City Council for action possibly in early 2016.

Phase 3 concerns Hillside Overlay Areas, where new single-family homes and major additions are being reviewed for neighborhood compatibility through the Hillside Development Permit process. This phase will begin at the end of this year and is expected to be completed by 2016.

Since the study may not be completed until early 2016, Pasadena Heritage recommended that the public should participate actively in any additional opportunities where they could present their views and comments about possible amendments to the zoning codes.