By John Whitaker and Lee Kanon Alpert
Many of us moved into our beloved Sherwood Forest Community because of the lovely, often spacious homes with land, but now our community and lifestyle are changing and under attack due to the California State Legislature’s passing Senate Bill 9 (SB 9) effective January 1, 2022 and Senate Bill 1211 (SB 1211) effective January 1, 2025.
Greedy developers are seeking to maximize their profits at our expense!
Having lived in Sherwood Forest for decades, we sound the alarm to the community as what will bring a devaluation to our homes, destroy the peaceful nature of our community, and add more traffic congestion.
As the first example, we bring to your attention the project on the Southeast corner of Encino and Parthenia. A similar project is being developed on the adjacent parcel just east on Parthenia.
Both of the former homes on these properties were single-family residences (RA–1 residences) before being demolished and are now being developed with MULTI-UNIT PROJECTS including 2 new large duplexes pursuant to SB 9 and a so-called large, attached accessory dwelling unit (ADU).
We JUST learned a 2.4-acre beautiful 3rd property at 17545 Parthenia (Northeast corner
of Parthenia and Shoshone) was bought by the EXACT SAME DEVELOPER and is currently under review for immediate demolition and a new project!
We expect this project will be even larger and more out of character than we see at Parthenia and Encino Avenue.
In this recent picture below, the white building is approved for a 3805 sq ft massive ADU attached by a small open breezeway but separated by a fence, and the two darker buildings are the approved duplexes which are about the same size. The same is also true for the adjacent project.
THE SIZE AND STRUCTURE OF THESE “ADUs” IS NOT WHAT WAS EVER INTENDED BY ANY LEGISLATION!
We along with other concerned residents started asking questions and making complaints in June to the Council District 12 (CD 12) office when we saw that the permits approved the attached ADUs for 3805 sq ft each. To our knowledge and considerable professional experience, no ADU has ever been allowed on a City residential parcel in excess of about 1200 sq ft pursuant to long-term existing City law.
CD 12 representatives initially told us that they agreed the permitted ADUs were too large, and these projects would be totally out of character for the Sherwood Forest neighborhood. They said they would seek answers from the City and its project inspectors.
Initially, senior management of the Department of Building and Safety indicated they agreed with our assessment. We asked the City to stop the building early on until a determination could be made. Then many unexplained delays from the Department of Building and Safety ensued but eventually we were told the City has determined that it no longer has the ability to control the size or design of an attached ADU due to SB 1211. When we requested more specific information on the basis for their decision, we were finally told that Government Code Section 66323 was amended by SB 1211 to provide in subdivision (b), that the City no longer has any discretion on the size, design, or other aspects of an attached ADU.
We re-reviewed the cited authority and strongly disagree that this subdivision (b) applies to either of these projects. We wrote to the CD 12 office on the 22nd of September about our reasoning and asked for an explanation from the City Attorney’s Office as to why our reasoning is wrong. The only response we received was that the City Attorney’s Office stands by its decision.
It now appears too late to stop these two eyesores and damaging projects in our neighborhood, but what is critical to be understood by all Sherwood Forest homeowners is that this can now be used as precedent anywhere in our neighborhood. This is frustrating because we believe the City has misinterpreted the current law and will not tell us why we are wrong.
We will continue to seek to meet with the City Attorney’s Office. We will also continue to request that CD 12 take the lead in requesting from our State legislators a further amendment to allow cities to at least restrict the size of any ADU to a maximum 1200 sq ft and some design discretion as well and have our local Board of Zoning Appeals, Department of Building and Safety to correctly modify their positions and wherever possible, interpret the legislation for the benefit of our communities. In addition, we have started emergency action to stop any demolition of the beautiful Parthenia/Shoshone estate by this developer.
We welcome any assistance and suggestions from our Sherwood Forest neighbors. We want to prevent this from happening on your street!
WE NEED FOR YOU TO:
- Join the Sherwood Forest Homeowners Association
- Ask in writing and call your elected officials to amend the legislation to make it clear our neighborhood will be protected
- John Lee, CD 12 Councilmember – councilmember.lee@lacity.org – 818-882-1212
- Contact the developer to inform him of the unintended consequences of the development: Lior Mandelbaum
- Ask our local elected officials to take a position and work with our legislature and city attorneys to collectively change legislation, ordinances, and interpretations of the laws that destroy our neighborhoods as never intended.
JOIN US IN HELPING TO SAVE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO ANY RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ALL OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS.
Thank you.
John Whitaker, Land Use and Real Estate Attorney
Lee Alpert, Real Estate and Land Use Attorney
