A GUIDE TO BUILDING IN THE HILLS OF LOS ANGELES
Article #4: Setbacks (Baseline Hillside Ordinance)
We are working through the Baseline Hillside Ordinance to determine what we can build at the fictional property, 809 Higgins St. in the Hollywood Hills. Today we will look at Setbacks. As always, the ordinances are intended to preserve general intents and exceptions may be approved in individual cases.
SETBACKS
The Setbacks Requirement determines the required distance that each side of your home needs to be from the property line. This provides for a few things:
- Avoiding homes smashing into one another with too little space in between.
- Allowing for fire access and creating a buffer between buildings to mitigate the spread of fires.
- Giving plants and trees have space to grow in between the homes
- Granting more daylight access to the homes
- Maintaining a coherently scaled neighborhood that blends in with the traditional community.
To find the required setback for our fictional property at 809 Higgins St., we need to know the zoning of the lot. We know that the property is zoned R1-1 following our Zimas search (www.zimas.lacity.org) using the property’s APN.
The standard setback requirements for each yard of R1-zoned homes are:
| FRONT YARD | – No less than 20% of Lot Depth- No more than 20 feet |
| SIDE YARD | – No less than 5 feet- No restriction on maximum setback- The required side yard may be reduced to 10% of the Lot Width, but if the lot is less than 50 feet wide, it cannot be reduced to less than 3 feet- For structures with a height greater than 18 feet, one additional foot must be added to each required side yard for each increment of 10 feet above the first 18 feet. |
| REAR YARD | – No less than 15 feet- No restriction on maximum setback |
Let us go to 809 Higgins Street and determine the Setbacks criteria that we need to satisfy.
FRONT YARD:
“On lots fronting on Substandard Hillside Limited Street*, there shall be a minimum Front Yard setback of at least 5 feet. However, the prevailing Front Yard* setback regulations shall apply, so long as a Front Yard setback of no less than 5 feet is provided. (Special Requirement §12.21C.10.(a)(2) of the LAMC). The City of Los Angeles requires a prevailing setback study for new construction or major additions.
SIDE YARD:
“The required side yard may be reduced to 10% of the lot width but in no event less than 3 feet where the lot is less than 50 feet wide.”
But 809 Higgins St. is a Substandard Hillside Limited Street, so an additional provision applies:
“For Lots fronting on a Substandard Hillside Limited Street, in no event shall the Side Yard be less than 4 feet.”
NOTE: “For buildings or structures with a height greater than 18 feet, one additional foot shall be added to each required Side Yard for each increment of 10 feet or fraction thereof above the first 18 feet.”
We just need to maintain the building height at less than 28 feet in order to keep the 4’ side yard setback.
The buildable area is now at 17 feet wide.
REAR YARD:
“Not less than 15 feet.”
We now can compile all of the above into a single diagram showing the Front, Side, & Rear Yard Setbacks and the Buildable Zone.
So the Buildable Zone is 17 feet wide by 80 feet long, or 1,360 square feet.
In addition to the above, the Baseline Hillside Ordinance lists 12 special setback requirements. These follow the same principles as the standard setback requirements but apply to select special conditions, such as properties that front a Substandard Hillside Limited Street.
Note that for lots on Substandard Hillside Streets using the 5 feet setback option, the area of the building within 20 feet of the setback must maintain a maximum height of 24 feet. More on this in Article 6, which will discuss the provisions of the Height Limits.
* Substandard Hillside Limited Street: A street that is less than 36 feet wide and paved to a roadway width of less than 28 feet. The official determination is by the Bureau of Engineering. See definition on page 28 of the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, A Comprehensive Guide: http://planning.lacity.org/Code_Studies/BaselineHillsideOrd/BHComprehensiveGuide1stEdition.pdf
Note: The content in this article is for information only and it represents our interpretation of Los Angeles Zoning & Building codes. Current Los Angeles Zoning & Building Codes should be consulted for an in-depth understanding of the legal text contained in them, and building officials should be consulted as their interpretation of the Los Angeles Zoning and Building Codes may differ from ours.