LA launches initiative for architect-designed home improvements
“As a city already known for its enviable array of housing stock – whether its a midcentury modern mansion or a Spanish hacienda-style house with a luscious garden – Los Angeles has recently revealed a new building initiative that will allow homeowners to get even more bang for their buck through home improvements. Known as the Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Standard Plan Program, the initiative puts forward 20 pre-approved designs for ADUs, which are secondary livable structures that can be added to the same piece of property, that enables the process of obtaining planning and building approval from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety to be expedited and simplified.
‘This program is about making ADUs more accessible, more affordable, and more beautiful — and making them part of the blueprint of our efforts to tackle our housing crunch and create more affordable communities citywide,’ said the city’s Mayor Eric Garcetti, when announcing the program, which has been in development for a year and in a pilot phase for seven months.
Currently featuring the work of 14 architecture firms, including WHY Architecture, So-Il and Jennifer Bonner/Mall, the pre-approved designs offers homeowners flexible designs that will work with residential zoned properties, consumer protection from contractor abusers, a reduction in cost for the overall permitting process as well as access to the architecture firms who have been pre-approved. The plan check review process for these home improvements is also diminished from 4-6 weeks to as little as one day. […]”
-Pei-Ru Keh