Protecting Single-Family Neighborhoods from Mansionization

CPV strives to protect single-family neighborhoods in Venice by working against proposed projects that are significantly incompatible with the scale and character of the existing neighborhoods.  Surprisingly, Venice has few neighborhoods zoned single-family residential.  They are in the Oxford Triangle and in the area between Venice and Washington west of Abbott Kinney.  These neighborhoods were built after the war on land near the Venice marshlands (that were finally drained when Marina del Rey was developed).  Most of Venice’s other neighborhoods are zoned multi-family residential. 

The 2001 Venice Land Use Plan included policies designed to protect the “mass, scale, and character” of all Venice’s neighborhoods.   Venice was seen as one of only a few “special coastal communities and neighborhoods” deserving of protection for their uniqueness and importance.

Until the 1990’s homes in these single-family small-lot neighborhoods were single-story.  The evolution to two-story homes was inevitable and began to occur, at first with modest two-story homes.  However, as property values rose, developers began to maximize the square footage of their projects.  This has resulted in an acceleration of homes totally out-of-character with the look and character of their neighbors.  As more of these homes are built the scale character of these unique neighborhoods is rapidly being destroyed.