By Angela McGregor

Thursday night, January 30th, officials from the City Planning Office presented the preliminary draft Mello Act Ordinance to a packed room at the Venice Public Library. The new ordinance — requested by Councilman Mike Bonin in 2015 — would create stricter rules to preserve affordable housing in the Coastal Zone as well as closing loopholes in the current version.

The Mello Act, first put into effect in 1982 exclusively within the Coast Zone of California, aimed to preserve the number of residential dwelling units along California’s Coast by requiring that existing units be replaced or preserved whenever a property is demolished and rebuilt. For new buildings,  it provided 10 percent very, very low income units and/or 20 percent low income units to be built within the Coastal zone, preferably on site.

In 2000, the City of Los Angeles implemented Interim Administrative Procedures for Complying with the Mello Act in the Coastal Zone in response to a settlement agreement which tightened the statewide restrictions.   Nevertheless, according to la .curbed, Venice alone lost 700 housing units between 2000 and 2015. Housing advocates blame this on the numerous loopholes and exemptions within the existing regulations.

According to City Planning Fact Sheet the proposed ordinance “strengthens and clarifies the review process where necessary, is more transparent with clear objectives and expectations as compared to the IAP, and removes options that did not result in desired outcomes.” Among these are:

* Forbids the conversion of duplex (two unit) residential properties into single family homes

* Assumes that any rental units on a property are affordable to low-income renters unless then property owner can prove otherwise

* Conversion of residential properties to non-residential uses is prohibited

* Replacement units, which were previously allowed to be built up to 3 miles off-site of the property, must now be built on-site.

The proposed ordinance can be found here in its entirety.

The ordinance is currently in the preliminary public review stage (a prior public outreach/information session on itwas held in San Pedro, 23 January, and the public is encouraged to contact the department of City Planning with suggestions. They can reach Jonathan Hershey, the Senior City Planner in charge of this ordinance, at planning.mello@lacity.org.

The crowd who attended included both owner/developers and housing advocates. Questions were submitted in writing and varied widely, from what the new ordinance impact might be on housing conversions for AIRBNB use (the answer was that there would not be any, since AIRBNB is only legal within a primary, single-family residence). The answer to what a property owner should do if he “doesn’t want to be in the affordable housing business” (the answer was, “if you own affordable housing, you’re already in the affordable housing business).”

It’s anticipated that the public outreach and approval process for the new ordinance will take upwards of 18 months. Projects which complete the city planning submission process during that time will be subject to the previous regulations.

LA City Planning will hold an information meeting regarding the draft of a proposed permanent Mello Act ordinance. They will be hold a meeting 30 January, 5:30 to 7:30, in the Venice Library at 501 Venice Blvd.

The Mello Act seeks to preserve and expand the number of affordable dwelling units in the Coastal Zone areas.

City Planning has a meeting 30 January, 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Venice Library, 501 Venice Blvd to discuss expanding the Mello Act beyond just the Local Coastal zone.

Note:  After seeing the motion, John Reed, local architect and member of the Venice Neighborhood Council board made the statement:  “The sad fact is nothing, absolutely nothing was accomplished regarding the Mello Act in the last 13 + years and we are now starting over.”

By Darryl DuFay

In 1982, a statewide bill called the Mello Act was passed.  It was designed for the CA Coastal Zone to preserve housing for persons and families with low and moderate incomes when a new construction or conversion building permit was requested.  The Venice Coastal Zone is from Lincoln Blvd to the beach. This is a major issue for Councilman Mike Bonin.

In 2000 the City adopted “Interim Administrative Procedure for Complying with the Mello Act” but it never made the ordinance permanent.  It has been very contentious. Since 2015 Mike Bonin has been pushing to make the Mello Act permanent and enforceable. The sad fact is nothing, absolutely nothing was accomplished regarding the mello act in the last 13 + years and we are now starting over. 

“The sad fact is nothing, absolutely nothing was accomplished regarding the Mello Act in the last 13 + years and we are now starting over,” said John Reed, local architect and current member of the Venice Neighborhood Council board.

Below the councilman’s current Motion before the City’s Transportation Committee.  He is the Chairman.  Council File 15-0129-S1. 

He states: I THEREFORE MOVE that the Council direct the Planning Department and Housing and Community investment Department, in consultation with the City Attorney, to prepare and present a permanent ordinance to implement the Mello Act, including a requirement for all new housing developments that are subject to the Mello Act to provide affordable housing.