Photo by discarted via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Contrasting the Los Angeles City Council's vote earlier today on mansionization, affecting single-family homes, another ordinance was passed today -- one that replaces a temporary 2005 law regarding downtown residential hotels, mostly used by low-income and nearly homeless people. The ordinance protects single-room-occumpancy (SRO) and residential hotels within Los Angeles from becoming expensive lofts and condos. If owners want to convert their buildings, they must......

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......

An article from the Daily News takes a look at the toll the 6-month old smoking ban in Burbank is taking on its local workers, most of whom are flummoxed by the fact that a smoke break means breaking the law. According to the article, one local businessman "Barry Kessler, 48, owner of a downtown jewelry store bearing his family name, has led the charge against the anti-smoking ordinance. In the coming weeks he plans......

For the third week in a row, the Cycling Community will be massing at the Pasadena City Council speaker’s podium, protesting the City’s efforts to pass an ordinance (.pdf) that will prohibit bicyclists from riding more than two abreast in any public street. The City of Pasadena, who earned the title of "most bike-friendly city in Los Angeles County" in 2004, claims that the ordinance is a simple attempt to manage the user group......

Santa Clarita may have no business tax like Los Angeles, but they really have it in for signs. A 1990 sign ordinance does not allow tall billboard like signs (like the ones you may see from the freeway) within city limits. Until last year, the city gave businesses an opportunity to take down their signs within a long grace period. Then they got hardcore: On Thursday, March 16, 2006, the City of Santa Clarita......