L.A. Council Votes to Extend High-Rise Ban Into Studio City

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved and sent to Mayor Tom Bradley an ordinance extending into Studio City a high-rise building moratorium on Ventura Boulevard.

The moratorium, approved 13 to 0, will take effect immediately if signed by Bradley. The mayor has taken no position on the measure.

Studio City-area Councilman Joel Wachs, who asked for the urgency clause, said it was necessary to stop several large projects from moving forward until the city can come up with a plan to improve traffic on the clogged boulevard.

The one-year moratorium contains the same restrictions on building imposed by the council Oct. 1 on Ventura Boulevard between Coldwater Canyon Avenue in the western part of Studio City and Valley Circle Boulevard in Woodland Hills.

It is designed to give city planners time to draft a plan linking construction on the clogged thoroughfare to traffic improvements. Planners say the plan could require developers to pay for street widenings or to provide shuttle buses for employees or customers.

Besides banning buildings taller than three stories, the measure cuts the permitted floor space from 3 to 1 1/2 times the size of the parcel and requires more parking spaces, one for every 300 square feet of development instead of one for every 500 square feet.

The ordinance applies to commercially zoned property on Ventura Boulevard between Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Lankershim Boulevard and on Cahuenga Boulevard between Lankershim and Mulholland Drive.

Studio City was not included in the moratorium approved earlier for other communities along Ventura Boulevard because Wachs said he didn’t believe stricter controls on development were necessary. Wachs later changed his mind. But, by then, it was too late, because of legal requirements, for Studio City to be included in the other measure, and a separate ordinance was required.