ADOPT LANDSCAPING RULES FOR HOMES.

Byline: Ellen Vukovich

Local View

WHILE members of the Los Angeles City Council grapple with proposed restrictions on "McMansions" -- and controversial issues of property rights and property-tax revenues -- there is another component they ought to consider: Creating, implementing and enforcing landscaping requirements for single-family residences.

Yes, this would be an unprecedented step. However, many community-based specific plans have landscaping requirements for commercial developments. By taking this proactive role, the council would improve the new McMansions law -- one that many complain is not sufficient to protect neighborhoods and property values.

By adding landscaping requirements to the ordinance, the city would also address adjacent neighbors' privacy concerns about new homes. It could minimalize the massing effect large homes create next to smaller-scaled ones by ensuring that large trees and existing privacy plantings would not be destroyed. That, and replacement landscaping materials would have to be consistent with the existing plantings in the neighborhood.

Legally enforceable guidelines could be worked out by a citizens' advisory committee consisting of community-based landscaping professionals. The objective would be to craft simple, enforceable provisions for developers -- including homeowners who seek to remodel or tear down their existing homes -- and the city.

For example, whenever developers apply for a demolition permit, they would also submit a plot plan identifying existing plants and trees that are slated to be removed or kept, prepared by a licensed professional. City staffers would then review and approve the plans in order to guarantee that the bare minimum of plants and trees are removed during demolition, subject to confirmation after an on-site inspection by the Department of Building and Safety.

Because there are always "exceptions" to any laws, should a developer prove that certain plants and/or trees must be removed, he would be required to replace new plants and/or trees at specified minimum sizes. And to guarantee compliance, at the time the Department of Building and Safety issues the certificate of cccupancy, a new certificate of landscaping compliance would be also be issued.

While there are surely more elements that need be worked out -- such as required irrigation systems to prevent wasting water -- the council must not lose sight of the need for a sound landscaping policy. Each time any established tree or privacy planting is destroyed, it takes generations to replace them. We can no longer accept the continual destruction of mature plants and trees in our neighborhoods just because they are in the way of new construction.

Generally, placement of a new home is an arbitrary decision based on design preferences and the "lay of the land." Therefore, existing plants and trees must be included in the residential (re)development process -- especially since they provide privacy, cool and shade. They also and support property values in our neighborhoods.

By adopting landscape requirements for new/remodeled single-family residences, Los Angeles would not only help to preserve its priceless green inheritance, but reap another benefit -- another source of revenue.