LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday directed staff to prepare an ordinance intended to ease approval of pending small residential projects affected by the city's previous stormwater rules.
The council voted 14-0 to approve a motion introduced by Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez in May. The motion seeks to address what Rodriguez described as an "inequity" created when the city updated its low-impact development requirements in April 2024.
The updated rules eliminated a requirement for costly, complex stormwater-infiltration systems on larger developments, but pending projects submitted before the change remained subject to the older requirements.
"A simple home addition or backyard ADU shouldn't require an industrial-grade engineering project," Rodriguez said in a statement. "Years after aligning our stormwater rules with state standards, homeowners are still trapped in administrative gridlock under mandates we no longer impose."
"This measure provides a common-sense pathway to clear that backlog keeping housing units off the market, eliminates unnecessary costs, and refocuses City resources where they actually deliver results," Rodriguez added.
The council directed the city attorney, in consultation with the Bureau of Sanitation, to prepare an amendment establishing an administrative relief process for pending projects involving between 500 and 2,499 square feet of added impervious area.
In 2011, the city lowered its low-impact development compliance threshold to 500 square feet of added impervious area from the regional 2,500- square-foot standard under its municipal separate storm sewer system permit.
The change subjected thousands of small residential projects to requirements originally designed for commercial and large-scale development, according to city officials.
City officials said requiring stormwater-infiltration systems on small private parcels could lead to flooding, mosquito breeding and structural effects on nearby foundations, while adding financial and administrative barriers to housing production.
On April 2, 2024, the city returned its low-impact development threshold to the regional standard of 2,500 square feet, finding that small private projects were less efficient at meeting citywide stormwater goals than regional infrastructure financed by Measure W, also known as the Safe, Clean Water Program.
Projects submitted before the 2024 rule change, however, remained subject to the earlier requirements.
City News Service
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