446 North Crane Boulevard (ENV-2025-1695-CE)

2025061011

City of Los Angeles

NOE - Notice of Exemption

6/20/2025

6/20/2025

Pablo Estrada

City of Los Angeles, Department of City Planning

Planning Associate

Lead/Public Agency

200 N Spring Street, Room 621
Los Angeles, CA 90012

(818) 374-9908

pablo.estrada@lacity.org

Sam Zelaya

Seven Seas Construction Services, Inc

Representative

Parties Undertaking Project

6900 Canby Ave #102
Los Angeles, CA 91335

(818) 483-6626

info@sevenseascon.com

PROJECT LOCATION 446 North Crane Boulevard

NAME OF APPLICANT / OWNER: Rebecca Dobyns & Christian Gilbert

Categorical Exemption

Section 15303, Class 3

There are six (6) Exceptions which the City is required to consider before finding a project exempt under Section 15303, Class 3 (a) Location; (b) Cumulative Impacts; (c) Significant Effect; (d) Scenic Highways; (e) Hazardous Waste Sites; and (f) Historical Resources. The site is zoned R1-1-HCR and has a General Plan Land Use Designation of Low Residential. While the subject site is located 1.85 kilometers from the Raymond Fault, specific Regulatory Compliance Measures (RCMs) in the City of Los Angeles regulate the grading and construction of projects in these particular types of “sensitive” locations and will reduce any potential impacts to less than significant. Regulatory Compliance Measures (RCMs) include requirements to conform with the California Building Code and the City’s Landform Grading Manual. These RCMs have been historically proven to work to the satisfaction of the City Engineer to reduce any impacts from the specific environment the project is located. The project shall comply with the Geology and Soils Report Approval Letter from the Department of Building and Safety dated October 22, 2024 (log #131876-01). Thus, the location of the project will not result in a significant impact based on its location. With regard to potential cumulative impacts during the construction phase of the project, there may be active construction activity in the vicinity of where the subject property is located at the same time that the project undergoes construction. However, Regulatory Compliance Measures will help ensure that cumulative impacts related to construction activity are addressed. Therefore, the project will not have any significant impacts to traffic. The City’s Department of Transportation(LADOT), released their Hillside Development Construction Traffic Management Guidelines on June 16, 2020. These guidelines state the purpose of a Construction Traffic Management Plan is to address transportation concerns specific to hillside communities, including narrow streets, limited emergency access, and location in a Very High Fire Severity Zone. The proposed project would not be subject to a Hillside Construction Traffic Management Plan due to the addition to the house being less than 1,000 square feet as stated by LADOT staff. The email from LADOT is dated March 7, 2025, and is included in the case file. Therefore, the subject project will have no cumulative impact on the City’s circulation system. Interim thresholds were developed by DCP staff based on CalEEMod model runs relying on reasonable assumptions, consulting with AQMD staff, and surveying published air quality studies for which criteria air pollutants did not exceed the established SCAQMD construction and operational thresholds. The subject site is in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (VHFHSZ). This does not support an unusual circumstance as the City has thousands of similar developments of the same size and scale in VHFHSZ. Additionally, the existing regulatory compliance measures will ensure there is no potential for an impact. Such areas are subject to existing emergency plans and regulations that govern development in fire hazards areas: ? Adopted emergency response plans and emergency evacuation plans applicable to the City of Los Angeles, include the City of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Plan and the Los Angeles County Operational Area Emergency Response Plan (OAERP). The OAERP defines responsibilities and provides guidance to agencies and jurisdictions within the County Operational Area on how to interface with the Operational Area Coordinator during emergencies and disasters.1 The City’s Emergency Operations Plan and Annexes identify roles, responsibilities and required actions for various City departments, particularly LAFD and the LAPD. In addition to their emergency response plans, both the City and County also designate Disaster Routes, which are freeway, highway or arterial routes preidentified for use during emergencies. Disaster routes are not the same as evacuation routes. The Evacuation Annex of the City’s Emergency Operation Plan provides that “[p]rimary evacuation routes consist of the major interstates, highways, and primary arterials within the City and Los Angeles County.”2 Disaster routes are used to bring emergency personnel, equipment, and supplies to impacted areas, while evacuation routes are used to move an affected population out of an impacted area. The closest County-designated primary (i.e. freeway) Disaster Route to the project site is State Route 110.3 ? Fire, Building, and Zoning Code. Properties in VHFHSZs must comply with the requirements of Fire Code Section 57.322, which requires brush clearance within 200 feet of any structure. LAFD performs microenvironment weather analysis to check for irregular weather patterns and changes, which alerts LAFD to conditions such as windy days combined with low humidity. LAFD uses a Burning Index4 to determine when to call a Red Flag Day.5 A Red Flag Day is when the potential for a fast-moving brush fire is extremely high, when wind speeds are 25 mph or more and the humidity is 15 percent or less. On those days, illegally parked cars in VHFHSZ areas may be towed if their presence would prevent roadway access needed by LAFD. LAFD also has a significant air response ready to deploy, including water-dropping helicopters, and the mission of LAFD Air Operations includes brush fire suppression.6 LAFD also has access to additional helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, bulldozers, and fire engines through mutual aid agreements with the state, County, and other cities in the region. In addition to attacking wildfires from the sky, LAFD also has ground resources such as fire engines and trucks. Chapter 33 of the City’s Fire Code provides requirements designed to reduce risk of fire ignition during construction. These include, but are not limited to, prohibition of smoking except in areas approved by the LAFD, refueling of equipment in appropriate locations, preparation of a fire prevention program, and designation of fire watch personnel during occurrence of hazardous construction activities. The Fire Code (LAMC Section 57.4906.5.2) also requires the management of hazardous vegetation and fuel, as well as maintenance of defensible space in wildland-urban interface areas. The Fire Code also includes regulations that address building materials and construction methods for construction in VHFHSZs, that are intended to reduce exterior wildfire exposure. As mentioned, the proposed project includes the construction, use, and maintenance of an approximately 195-square-foot addition to the existing single-family dwelling, the inclusion of approximately 775 square feet of floor area for the covered patio, covered deck, and covered area below deck, and an Accessory Dwelling Unit under separate administrative review on a 6,581.4 square-foot-lot in an area zoned and designated for such development. All adjacent lots are developed with single-family dwellings, or vacant and the subject site is of a similar size and slope to nearby properties. The project proposes a Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 0.30:1 or 1,964 square feet on a site that is permitted to have a maximum FAR of 0.47:1 or 3,080 square feet. The project proposes a building height of 32 feet which is not unusual for the vicinity of the subject site and is similar in scope to other existing low residential in the area. As identified in the Owners Declaration of Biological Resources signed and dated February 24, 2025, Property Owners, Rebecca Dobyns and Christian Gilbert, stated that the project site will not remove or possibly create a substantial effect on any of the biological resources and will have no impact on any species or riparian habitats identified as a candidate, sensitive, or special status species in local or regional plans, policies, or regulations; federally protected wetlands; and the movement of any native resident or migratory fish or wildlife species. The site is previously disturbed, it is surrounded by development and therefore is not, and has no value as a habitat for endangered, rare or threatened species. Therefore, the subject project will have no cumulative biological impact to the project site and its surroundings. Prior to any work on the adjacent public right-of-way, the applicant will be required to obtain approved plans from the Department of Public Works. As there currently is no approved right-of-way improvement plan and for purposes of conservative analysis under CEQA, Planning has analyzed the worst-case potential for removal of all street trees. Note that street trees and protected trees shall not be removed without prior approval of the Board of Public Works/Urban Forestry (BPW) under LAMC Sections 62.161-62.171. At the time of preparation of this environmental document, no approvals have been given for any tree removals on-site or in the right-of-way by BPW. The City has required a Tree Disclosure Statement, to identify all Protected Trees/Shrubs on the project site and all street trees in the adjacent public right-of-way. The owner signed on February 14, 2025 the Tree Disclosure Statement, stating that Ann Burroughs, Registered Consulting Arborist RCA #529, made a field visit on January 30, 2025 and stated that there are zero (0) Protected Trees on the subject lot. There are thirteen Trees identified on site and five (5) are Significant Trees and zero (0) are proposed for removal as identified on the Site Plan.Thus, there are no unusual circumstances which may lead to a significant effect on the environment. Additionally, the only State Scenic Highway within the City of Los Angeles is the Topanga Canyon State Scenic Highway, State Route 27, which travels through a portion of Topanga State Park. The proposed project is located over 37.1 miles away from Topanga State Park. Therefore the subject site will not create any impacts within a designated as a state scenic highway. Furthermore, according to Envirostor, the State of California’s database of Hazardous Waste Sites, neither the subject site, nor any site in the vicinity, is identified as a hazardous waste site. The project site has not been identified as a historic resource by local or state agencies, and the project site has not been determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, California Register of Historical Resources, the Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments Register, and/or any local register; and was not found to be a potential historic resource based on the City’s HistoricPlacesLA website or SurveyLA, the citywide survey of Los Angeles. Finally, the City does not choose to treat the site as a historic resource. Based on this, the project will not result in a substantial adverse change to the significance of a historic resource and this exception does not apply. The project will be subject to Regulatory Compliance Measures (RCMs), which require compliance with the City of Los Angeles Noise Ordinance, pollutant discharge, dewatering, stormwater mitigations, and Best Management Practices for stormwater runoff. These RCMs will ensure the project will not have significant impacts on noise and water.