Baeline Hillside Ordinance adopted by City links and interest list

The Baseline Hillside Ordinance (CPC-2010-581-CA; Council File No. 10-1001) was adopted by the City Council on Friday, March 18, 2010. The Ordinance received 13 Yes votes and 0 No votes.

For a copy of the adopted Ordinance and other online documents and information, please refer to the online Council File at the following link: http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=10-1001

We are currently working a handout for the new hillside regulations that will include diagrams to illustrate some of the language, some of which can already be seen in the Staff Reports prepared for the Ordinance (use the links provided below). We hope to have that ready in the near future.


Where Will This Apply?
Any property zoned R1, RS, RE(9, 11, 15, 20, & 40), or RA which is designated as Hillside Area pursuant to Section 12.03 of the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) will be subject to the Baseline Hillside Ordinance when it becomes effective. Please use our Zoning & Information Map Access System, or ZIMAS (http://zimas.ci.la.ca.us/), to find your "Zone" and "Hillside Area (Zoning Code)" designation; please look under the "Planning and Zoning" tab on the left side of your web browser.

What's Next?
According to Section 250 of the City Charter, the Mayor has 10 days to act on it - meaning he can act on it on the same day, or 10 days later. Assuming the Mayor approves it, the City Clerk's Office will then post the adopted Ordinance for a period of 10 days and a 30-day effective date will begin after that. Simply put, the earliest an Ordinance can realistically go into effect is 40 to 50 days after it is adopted by the City Council.

When we have an effective date, we will email the individuals on this interest list.
Projects in Early Design Stages, Submitted for Discretionary Actions, and/or in Plan Check
For those of individuals working on projects which are currently in the early design stages or is waiting for a discretionary action of some sort, please use the information above to gauge whether you will be able to submit for plan check prior to the effective date of the proposed Baseline Hillside Ordinance.

Pursuant to Section 12.26 A.3 of the LAMC, any project which is accepted by the Department of Building and Safety for plan check with a complete set of plans and for which the fees have been paid prior to the effective date of an Ordinance will be considered to be a Vested Development Plan; meaning that the applicable regulations in place prior to this change will continue to apply. However, there are some limitations to this provision that you should be aware of, but the more relevant ones are that you have 18 months after the fee is paid, and that you cannot make changes to those plans which increase or decrease the height, floor area, or occupant load of the proposed structure by more than 5%. Feel free to reference our online Municipal Code for more details ( http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates&fn=default.htm&vid=amlegal:lamc_ca ); go to Chapter 1, Article 2, Section 12.26, Subsection A, Subdivision 3.

The only way to "vest" a typical single-family development project under the current Code is through the Vested Development Plan provision summarized above. Applications for, or approval of discretionary actions (i.e. Zoning Administration Determinations, Adjustments, Variances, etc.) prior to the effective date does not confer vesting rights to a project. If you are not able to submit for plan check to the Department of Building & Safety prior to the effective date of the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, it is recommended that you consider the proposed hillside provision when making design choices or determining a course of action.


Useful Links
April 22, 2010 City Planning Commission Staff Report: http://planning.lacity.org/StaffRpt/InitialRpts/CPC-2010-581.pdf
May 27, 2010 City Planning Commission Staff Report: http://planning.lacity.org/Code_Studies/BaselineHillsideOrd/CPC-2010-581-CA052710SRpt.pdf
City Planning Commission Determination Letter: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2010/10-1001_rpt_plan_6-8-10.pdf
City Attorney Report: http://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2010/10-1001_RPT_ATTY_02-11-11.pdf
Online Council File: http://cityclerk.lacity.org/lacityclerkconnect/index.cfm?fa=ccfi.viewrecord&cfnumber=10-1001


Feel free to forward this information to anyone you feel might be interested.

If you received this email via forwarded message from someone other than myself, and you want to obtain updates directly from the Department, please email erick.lopez@lacity.org and ask to be added to the interest list. Please type "Add Me To Hillside Notification List" in the subject line and provide your group/organization/company affiliations and contact information (please include at least your ZIP Code).

Facebook™ Users: Look for the Baseline Hillside Ordinance page; add the page and receive updates in your news feed. You can also view our events calendar and participate in discussion boards.

As always, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact myself or Jennifer Driver at jennifer.driver@lacity.org or at (818) 374-9916.

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__________________________________________
Erick Lopez, City Planner
City of Los Angeles - Department of City Planning
Office of Zoning Administration - Code Studies
200 N. Spring St., Room 701
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 978-1323
(213) 978-0597 - fax
erick.lopez@lacity.org

Mortgage Proposals 5% or 7% depending on down and credit history

NATION’S HOUSING 4/10/2011
Changes in mortgage finance rules could hurt housing recovery
The government is proposing to limit the best interest rates and terms to buyers who can put 20% down, meet stringent debt limits and have sterling credit.

These are "requirements that federal agencies and the Obama administration are proposing...:

•Strict mandatory debt-to-income limits. Under the proposal, to get the best mortgage rates, you would need to spend no more than 28% of your gross monthly income on housing-related expenses, and you couldn't have total monthly household debt that exceeds 36% of your income.

There would be no flexibility to go beyond these ceilings, unlike in today's marketplace, in which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac consider debt-to-income ratios along with other factors through their electronic underwriting systems. Freddie Mac, for example, has an overall debt-ratio limit of 45% of an applicant's stable monthly income.

•To refinance your existing mortgage and replace it with one carrying the best interest rate, you'd need no less than a 25% equity stake in your house to qualify. If you sought to take any additional cash out through a refi, you would need 30% equity. Today's typical requirements for a conventional refi are nowhere near as strict.

•Pristine credit standards. For example, if you were 60 days late on any credit account during the previous 24 months, you would be ineligible for a mortgage at the best terms.

These are all core features of what may be the most sweeping and controversial set of changes in decades for the housing and mortgage markets. The so-called "qualified residential mortgage," or QRM, proposals were released at the end of March by banking, securities and housing regulators, along with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The agencies were required by the 2010 financial reform legislation to come up with new standards for low-risk conventional mortgages.

Congress did not specify what a "safe" mortgage should look like but directed the agencies to consider such factors as full documentation of borrower income and assets plus avoidance of toxic features such as negative amortization and balloon payments. Congress was silent on the subject of minimum down payments.

Under the law, loans that do not meet the strict QRM tests will be pushed into a less-favored, higher-cost category: Banks and Wall Street securitizers would need to set aside 5% of loan balances in reserves to cover possible losses from defaults. This extra capital cost inevitably would be passed on to consumers.

Mortgage industry estimates of the interest rate differential between ultra-safe, QRM-qualifying loans and all others range from three-quarters of a percentage point to 3 percentage points. In today's market, this would mean that mortgages that meet the federal agencies' stringent new standards might go for 5%. But all others — the vast majority of today's conventional loans — could cost from just under 6% to 7% and higher.

You can muster only a 10% down payment? Tough. You can't quite fit into the tight confines of the QRM's debt-to-income ratio rule? Pay up.

Where and when will this all start hitting the marketplace? The proposals are out for public comment through June 10 and probably won't be put into effect until mid-2012. The agencies' proposal, though not the legislation, exempts mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the rule as long as both remain under federal conservatorship — a date uncertain. FHA and VA mortgages would not be subject to QRM either.

Meanwhile, builders, consumer groups, banks, real estate agents and others are readying campaigns to persuade the regulators and the Obama administration to back off some of the provisions. Michael Calhoun, president of the Center for Responsible Lending, argues that if adopted in its current form, the proposal would make it much tougher for modest-income and minority consumers to afford a first home.

Jerry Howard, chief executive of the National Assn. of Home Builders, says the agencies and the administration have strayed far beyond Congress' intent, and their proposals threaten to wreck any recovery in housing and force millions of Americans to rent rather than to own.

"I think we're in for a hell of a fight," he says.

Ken Haney,Distributed by Washington Post Writers Group

Homeowner line of credit users can apply for Calif state help

homeowners who refinanced their properties for cash or took out home equity lines of credit will now be allowed to participate in parts of the state's $2-billion foreclosure relief initiative.

Many people tapped their rising equity during the boom years, using their homes as ATMs to fuel spending. The California Housing Finance Agency had initially excluded people who used their home equity in such a manner from participating in its Keep Your Home initiative, which launched this year with federal funds reserved for the 2008 rescue of the financial system.April 06, 2011|By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles TimesCalifornia