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In Los Angeles neighborhoods where big, boxy houses were popping up like fungi on an overwatered lawn, the expectations of mansionization opponents soared seven years ago when a new city ordinance promised to halt out-of-scale development.
Alarmed residents citywide have long contended that the 2008 "baseline mansionization" ordinance had loopholes the size of dirt haulers and concrete mixers, which continue to raise dust and block traffic in areas beset by a tsunami of tear-downs and construction.
Now a multi-pronged proposal to temporarily tighten restrictions while city planners spend 18 months to two years devising a permanent fix is spawning its own chorus of dismay from detractors who say that developers of oversize homes are having undue influence on City Hall.
These critics say the draft "interim control ordinances," scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the City Council's planning and land use management committee, contain such confusing variations, bonuses and exemptions that they could easily make the situation worse.
"The language is so murky in the [interim control ordinances] provisions that it is nearly impossible to figure them out," said Dick Platkin, a retired city planner who has long battled mansionization in his Beverly Grove neighborhood.
Los Angeles' 2008 rules were intended to prevent the construction in single-family neighborhoods of puffed-up houses on modest lots. The restrictions curb the size of...