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SPECIFIC PLAN
Click Here to download the
Specific Plan.
Proposed
Amendments - Valley Village Specific Plan
Regulations
1. Urban Design
A. Establish design standards
administered by either a design review board, the Planning Department
staff or the
Neighborhood Council to ensure that new commercial and multifamily buildings
have
architectural
quality. To prepare the standards a well regarded, reputable architecture/urban
design firm should be retained to prepare a design manual with
standards of architectural quality for
each recognizable
architectural style. In addition, the firm should prepare an urban design plan,
with
illustrations
included, for Laurel Canyon Boulevard from a block south of Magnolia Boulevard
to
Burbank Boulevard
in order to create an attractive, pedestrian oriented downtown commercial center
for Valley Village.
B. A ban on pole signs and
projecting signs and lower area limits for wall signs and architectural canopy
signs (one sq.ft. per foot of building frontage) compared to the Citywide Sign
Ordinance.
C. A ban on conversions of
existing billboards to digital (LED) billboards.
D. Underground utility
connections for new construction.
E. Additional landscaping
requirements for parking lots as to the percentage of total area to be
landscaped, a landscaped buffer around parking lots and masonry walls for
screening. No ficus or palm trees shall be used in the landscaping.
F. Expand the Specific Plan’s language
on tree preservation in Sec. 9.C.1&2 to apply to single family homes. In
addition, increase the tree size from 24" to 36", require two replacement trees
to be planted for every tree that is removed and prepare a list of acceptable
replacement trees. Require that trees to be removed be identified as part of
the plan approval process and that the Planning Committee review the removal of
trees larger than 6” in diameter and 5’ in height.
G. Establishing build to lines along the
commercial sections of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, Whitsett and Colfax Avenues,
Magnolia and Burbank Boulevards and Riverside Drive to ensure that new
commercial buildings are placed next to the sidewalks in order to have a
pedestrian orientation and parking lots are behind or underneath buildings.
H. Applying the height
stepdown already in the Specific Plan for commercial buildings to multifamily
residential, institutions and uses allowed by conditional use permit.
2. Land Use
Add sidewalk venders,
portable signs, full service car washes, auto repair and auto body shops, new
and used automobile sales, new and used mobile home sales, tattoo parlors,
psychics, massage parlors, medical marijuana and smoke shops to the list of
prohibited uses in the existing Specific Plan. Change fast food restaurants to
drive through restaurants. Remove trade schools from the list.
Recommended Programs
1. That the median of Laurel Canyon
Boulevard between Magnolia and Burbank Boulevards be landscaped.
2. That a program for the systematic
planting of street trees along the major and secondary highways be established.
3. That DWP study the feasibility of
undergrounding the utilities along the major and secondary highways in Valley
Village, i.e. the cost, what percentage of a temporary increase in electricity
rates during the duration of the program would be needed to fund it and how many
years would be required for the program or,
alternatively, setting up an assessment district. Implement if the rate
increase or the assessment district is determined to not be unacceptably high
for Valley Village residents.
4.
That the City study the feasibility of setting up an assessment district to fund
the purchase and removal of billboards in Valley Village, starting with the
large monopole billboards. Implement if the cost is determined to not be
unacceptably high for Valley Village residents. Alternatively, that the
City of Los Angeles include in its legislative program a request to the State
Legislature that Los Angeles be exempted from the compensation requirement for
billboard removal established by A.B. 1353 enacted in 1982.
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