Oh, you've got to love rumors, especially those that both anger and please people, depending on who you're speaking with. This rumor comes via a report during the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council* meeting last Monday night. During a Land Use Committee report, someone asked what the status was on the old Ventura Club building at Colbath and Ventura (just East of Hazeltine). Originally it was slated as a Walgreens, but after that got scrapped, the......

An uncharacteristic home on Sunnyslope Ave. in Sherman Oaks | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist The Los Angeles City Council passed the first citywide anti-mansionization ordinance today, stopping the development of single-family houses that are built more than the half the size of their lots. Mansionization has been an ongoing point of discussion in neighborhoods as community members saw out of scale and uncharacteristic homes built by developers. For example, on a block full of......

Photo of the now destroyed Mann National courtesy of Los Angeles Times photographic archive, UCLA Library. Copyright Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library. Is Westwood making a comeback? The LA Times thinks so, in today's article on the burgeoning real estate development in UCLA's backyard. But isn't this a story we've heard a million times before? It goes something like this: Westwood used to be a great pedestrian area, then it fell......

Photo by digablesoul via Flickr What is a slight inconvenience and change of habit to most people is freaking others out. Official as of yesterday, the Valley is getting a new area code, 747, that will overlay the proud 818 (come on, 747 is much cooler than the 310 overlay, 424). "I think it's too much. It's crazy," a Van Nuys resident told the Daily News. "I think people would feel much better if......

Starting in November, Los Angeles will begin enforcing a new ordinance, one that significantly reduce carbon emissions into the air. Today, the Los Angeles City Council voted to approve the new measure that will "reduce the use of natural resources, create healthier living environments and minimize the negative impacts of development on local, regional and global ecosystems." It will also... Lower more than 80,000 metric tons of carbon emissions in Los Angeles annually by 2012.......

So, which city is more eco-friendly when it comes to building codes? After reading the LA Times, San Francisco comes out the winner, but that's not to say Los Angeles is some black hole of environmental actions. Both Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom want their respective cities to be the greenest in the country (doesn't every mayor say they want that?). Villaraigosa wants to lower greenhouse gases to 35%......

"6th Street Bridge Skyline", by the_mule via LAist Featured Photos Pool on Flickr. Britney Spears may be on her way out of Los Angeles, but she's not going quietly. The pop star was involved in a minor collision last night on the 134 in bumper to bumper traffic where she hit the car in front of her, causing that vehicle to bump the car in front of them. No one was hurt and the......

Photo by rink_rat via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Stay in school kids, especially if you live in the Valley. Yesterday the truant police hauled in 137 middle and high school kids who were ditching classes and chilling in public. 5 members of a church group were involved in an accident this morning on the eastbound Pomona Freeway. Sadly, three of the victims were killed and the others injured. The driver had......

Photo of Tom LaBonge by Greg Katz for LAist If you missed Tom LaBonge talking with Patt Morrison on KPCC Tuesday, you missed hearing the charismatic council member for Silver Lake, Miracle Mile, and North Hollywood say that he sleeps with his lights on. The subject of their chat was the latest DWP rate hike. When asked whether he thought the DWP should use a carrot-and-stick strategy to compel energy conservation, LaBonge went off......

The East Valley is finally getting its art house/indie movie theatre starting tomorrow -- at least the digging and construction part, that is. And unlike the two other Laemmle Theatres in the Valley, the new attraction in the NoHo Arts District will be more transit friendly with the confluence of the Metro Red and Orange lines nearby. The movie theater is the final phase of the NoHo Commons project, which includes the already-built HOWS Market,......

A rendering of the Madrone, which will be built at Hollywood and La Brea Last night was the unveiling of Madrone's architecture and all 44 of the floor plans for the 180-unit development to potential condo buyers (Curbed was there too). Ranging from around $400K to over $1-million, the Madrone's primo Hollywood and La Brea spot is hot, considering that it is in a transit friendly neighborhood/corridor, LAXART will be curating outdoor art and......

Why should you watch this? Because this is happening all over Los Angeles, not just Del Rey. Curbed LA rightly called this video, done by neighbors opposing the proposted Louise Ave. building, "brilliant." This property is the focal point of the first lawsuit in Los Angeles regarding the density bonus bill, SB1818, a law that strips local municipal zoning codes and allows higher density with less restrictions (height, setbacks). And as Curbed explains, "it's......

Yellow = City of Santa Clarita, Blue = Las Lomas Project, Purple = Los Angeles | Source: City of Santa Clarita [pdf] We don't understand why no one wants the Las Lomas project, a proposed 5,500 unit/555-acre development, to be built between the 5 and 14 freeways just north of Los Angeles' border. Come on, how cool would it be to live between two freeways so close together! Not to mention two other freeways......

RIP Tower Records building on Sunset: 1971-2008 The fate of the empty Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard has been decided: Demolition. Yesterday it was announced that the once-iconic yellow-and-red building at 8801 W. Sunset on the Strip would meet its un-maker, as it is being razed by a Chicago-based developer in order to build a multi-use office building slated to boast a gym and retail shops. Though by no means an architectural wonder,......

Downtown's historic Broadway Theater District could soon be getting a boost from the City. The Downtown News is reporting that a press conference on the area is planned for tomorrow morning, and that City Coucilman José Huizar (14th district) and Mayor Villaraigosa will be on hand to share with local business and land owners their goals and intentions. As revitalization takes place throughout LA's downtown area, many are seeking to extend the developments and improvements......

Cranes along Vine St. in Hollywood | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Today, Councilman Eric Garcetti delivered the annual State of Hollwood address at an event organized by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. He dedicated the address to Johnny Grant, who passed away earlier this month, and spoke about what makes a great neighborhood, at-risk youth tragedies and all that has been great and to be great for Hollywood. Here are excerpts from the address......

Despite the risk of building a home, selling a home and moving into a home in a high risk fire zone, companies, homeowners and governments still find it acceptable finds the LA Times today. "This is a land rush into danger," said Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and author of a recent book on wildfires. "A land rush by people who do not understand what they are doing and who......

The NoHo Arts District is looking up as the opening of the NoHo 14 Lofts nears and the arrival (finally!) of the two-story Bank Heist restaurant/bar. Small steps, small steps, right? Well, yesterday, the "Metro board approved negotiating with Lowe Enterprises for [a $1 billion development] massive mixed-use project," according to the Daily News today. Christened as the NoHo Art Wave, the development located over and around the Metro Orange and Red Line stations will......

When a new development is planned and traffic impact studies are needed, the developer hires the consultant, not the City. So you can see how residents are wary if the developer is in cahoots with the consultant to downplay results in favor of the development. And right some where:In Sherman Oaks, the local homeowners group was following a proposed 89-condo and 16,000-square-foot mixed-use project on Ventura Boulevard. The developer agreed to update an old......

Universal City, CA - Announced last fall, it is supposed to be the Century City of the Valley. And according to a group named The NBC Universal MTA Project Working Group (a coalition of the surrounding community organizations), it will have 1.47 million square feet of new commercial and residential space, office towers (up to 24 stories tall), a 34 story (445 feet tall) condominium & hotel tower. They also contend that there will......