Dear L.A. Resident:

The City Council voted overwhelmingly today to support the Ordinance Regulating Community Care Facilities and Boarding Houses and send the the Proposed Ordinance to the City Attorney for final drafting. The only Councilmember that voted against the Ordinance was Richard Alarcon. Janice Hahn and Herb Wesson were not present. Please contact your Councilmember and thank them for their vote – see their phone numbers below.

Two additional motions were passed. Councilmember Parks’ motion instructed the Planning Department with the assistance of the City Attorney to report with recommendations for a future amending ordinance to impose additional restrictions regarding the opening of new boarding houses within R-3 and higher density residential zones. We believe that Council Member Parks may want to prevent an overconcentration of boarding houses in any of the higher density areas by limiting their overall number and/or proximity to one another. Councilmember Rosendahl’s motion directed the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, City Attorney’s Office and Planning Department to report to Council with proposed enforcement guidelines for review before being enacted. We believe that Councilmember Rosendahl wants to ensure that any guidelines born from the Ordinance are written in such a way as to ensure that the Ordinance is enforced in a non-discriminatory manner.

Unfortunately, there remains significant issues related to governmentally funded housing. Hopefully these issues will be resolved in the next 30-45 days by the City Attorney in Planning, City Attorney in Housing and the City’s Housing Department. Thereafter, we expect the City Council to vote on the final version of the Ordinance.

We will keep you apprised of any new information we receive.