What is Mass, Scale and Character? And why would one care?
These are valid questions, and questions people like Sue Kaplan, chair of the Venice Neighborhood Council’s Mass, Scale, Character committee, is trying to define for certain areas of Venice. After defined for certain areas, they can be modified for other areas. Sue and her group are trying to quantify what is to many subjective.
Sue Kaplan is the one who is taking task in hand.
And you should care because mass, scale and character will prevent someone from building a box next door to you, in your neighborhood. A box is that structure that fills the buildable footprint of the lot, maxes it out. To many builders, square footage is the name of the game. People buy square footage; LA Times advertises square footage price by towns, areas.
But you don’t like that box down the street, square footage or not. It is an ugly, indistinguishable box. It does not represent the neighborhood.
Sue said neighborhood is on a block by block basis. She was asked if someone wanted to build a totally contemporary two-story style building in a block with one-story craftsmen and Spanish, could it be compatible.
Her answer was quick. “This is not about architectural style, but rather incompatible mass and scale,” she said. “He could have his second story stepped back an average of 10 feet for example. That might do it.”
Venice Specific plan says “compatible in scale and character with the existing neighborhood … shall not be materially detrimental to adjoining lots or the immediate neighborhood …shall complement those of existing structures on lots fronting on or adjacent to a Walk Street … building materials shall complement those of existing structures … facades shall be varied and articulated to provide visual interest to pedestrians.”
Can Venice stop a project that neighbors feel is not in line with mass, scale, and character of the neighborhood? The answer is yes. Will planning stop projects if neighbors complain? The answer is yes.
That is how important it is.
Sue defines “mass as the appearance of heaviness and bulk is the dimension of the building.” Scale she defines as the “relationship of project to surrounding projects.” Character she said “is the neighborhood and how it fits in.”
Sue and her committee are hoping to define these terms sufficiently to “make them understandable, applicable and workable to all involved in the planning process–developers, architects, homeowners and neighbors,” she wrote. “We hope that our recommendations will be embraced by the Venice community and maybe become a part of the revised, reworked Land Use Plan. Ambitious, yes, but we want to bring to the community a good document.”
She said she wanted to have a document ready before the present Venice Neighborhood Council leaves office.
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