The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo Herald Publications - El Segundo, Torrance, Manhattan Beach, Hawthorne, Lawndale, & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 106, No. 11 - March 16, 2017 Inside This Issue Centennial Salute...............3 Certified & Licensed Professionals.....................16 Classifieds............................4 Crossword/Sudoku.............4 Entertainment......................6 Legals............................ 14,15 Obituaries.............................2 Pets......................................18 Real Estate........ 10-13,19-20 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Center Street Third Graders Raise Money for CASE For the 19th annual Toy and Book Faire community service project, third grade students from Center Street Elementary School raised $600 with all donations going to support the local CASE food pantry. Photo by Young Hee Roh. City Planners Hope New R-1 Code Will Solve Longstanding Problem By Brian Simon After over a decade under the previous code, the City of El Segundo now has a new ordinance School Board Honors Budding Young Engineers, Views TLC Presentation By Duane Plank The El Segundo School Board on Tuesday night tackled several special presentations--recognizing the exploits of a troika of high school engineering students, hearing about the current and future state of the popular The Learning Connection (TLC) after-school program as well as the District’s financial solvency, and receiving the twice-monthly report from Ed! Foundation CEO Carol Pirsztuk. The 90-minute gathering, chaired by Board President Bill Watkins, who adjourned the meeting in the memory of longtime El Segundo Unified School District administrator Martin Ableseo, recognized three high-achieving, budding El Segundo High School engineers for their exploits at the Febuary 27 Engineering Games sponsored by Raytheon. Mentored by their teacher, Dan Horvath, students Ben Kooper, Ryan Hoerner and Michael Leahy were tasked by the Games’ engineering challenge to “build and program an ultrasonic range sensor using an Andruino open source electronic platform.” Surely not handed an everyday task to be completed by grade schoolers, the students finished second in the competition that involved participants from 30 high schools. High School principal Jaime Mancilla emailed his support of the young engineers: “I am very proud of our students who represented our school. It is indicative governing the way homeowners can build second-story additions on their properties. City officials believe the revisions—in particular, a provision to do away with modulation requirements— to the R-1 zone development standards and regulations will greatly streamline and simplify a process they said became a veritable nightmare in the recent past for homeowners as well as architects and contractors. Concerned about the growing problem of mansionization (building huge houses on relatively small lots, which can result in reduced street character while depriving neighbors with smaller homes of privacy, sunlight, views and air circulation), the City Council in 2006 instituted modulation—mandatory indentations in interior walls—to update the R-1 standards. But the move proved baffling for designers and builders and resulted in heavy backlash and suspended plans. In essentially replacing modulation, the new code passed last month by the City Council after many months of residential subcommittee discussion and community input allows a slight increase in floor to area ratio (FAR—the percentage of building compared to lot size) from 0.53 to 0.60. Of that, no more than 0.25 may be devoted to the second story, with the prevailing thought that this limitation can achieve similar effects as modulation and thereby reduce adverse impacts on neighbors. “Mansionization is discouraged more effectively under these new rules,” said City Planning Manager Gregg Mc- Clain. “Preserving sunlight and air circulation goals will also be generally better achieved than they were under modulation.” McClain also characterized the old rules as “confusing” and feels anyone can understand the new ordinance. “There is a lot more freedom in the new rules to design second floors that work for the homeowners. However, second floors will be somewhat smaller under the new rules compared to the old rules. This will help to keep the appearance of houses smaller, which is a benefit to the neighborhoods.” Asked to elaborate further on the difference between the old and new code, McClain explained that while the indented portions required by modulation made the sides of a house look better, it did not mitigate other issues. “It did very little to improve the sunlight and air circulation and had no meaningful impact on a neighbor’s visibility into your yard,” he said. “The new rules allow for full two-story walls on one side of a house, but the depth of the second story is almost always going to be shorter because of the FAR limit. This means less of a second story to look at, even if it is all massed on one side.” See R-1 Code, page 4 See School Board, page 14 Friday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 70˚/57˚ Saturday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 65˚/56˚ Sunday AM Clouds/ PM Sun 66˚/55˚
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