Comment by a1pulley | Hacker News Reader

Comment by a1pulley | Hacker News Reader

It says my lot isn't qualified because of high fire risk: Properties that are located within CalFire's "Very High Fire Severity Zones" are not eligible for SB 9 (unless excluded from the specified hazard zone by a local agency).

The real reason it doesn't qualify, though, is that my HOA—my entire city of ~650 SFH homes exists behind an HOA—has stated it won't approve SB9-related lot splits. The city itself wrote SB9 language into its bylaws, as required, but the architectural review committee in the HOA won't approve requests.

Moreover, all homes in my city are on septic systems, and LA County has a min lot size requirement for approving new ones. Some lots are large enough to split without dipping under that threshold, but most aren't; that means we have a sanitation reason to reject lot split requests too.

I imagine that similar developments will block lot splits in these ways. Have you run into similar issues? Have you successfully split any lots yet?

Hi! Great questions and let me see if I can answer them:

HFZ: Yes, sadly—though i think there is good logic to prohibit more density in fire prone area, and HOAs are already dense, so in your case it doesn't make sense.

HOA: yes, for now that is a blocker. This was also initially a problem with the 2017 legislation enabling ADUs, but in 2019 the state expanded the law to overrule HOA's. We'd like to see that as well, and can easily give you the resources to contact your legislators (coming soon on the search tool, we can help at connect@homestead.is for now)

LA County had relatively liberal interpretations of the ADU law, we hope they will reform some rules to make lot splitting easier!

All and all, there are still millions of ideal SB9 lots—I am very sorry your's isn't—and i think HOA restrictions are a load of crap!

> HOAs are already dense

Very often not, and a central part of their purpose is to prevent densification that might otherwise be allowed by law.

Dense in the sense of land to building use, not people per square foot. You have a 3-5,000 square foot home for a family of four on a quarter acre lot.

This is correct. My city has two zones: min 1 acre SFH and min 2 acre SFH.

> The real reason it doesn't qualify, though, is that my HOA—my entire city of ~650 SFH homes exists behind an HOA—has stated it won't approve SB9-related lot splits.

So get together with other homeowners around that and any other dissatisfaction with the HOA and disband it. Or take it over, either way.

Put signs in your neighbors' yards listing how much value there is, were their lots to be subdivided. Might get some people thinking before an HOA board election... ;)

They would probally fine him for the sign.

Do they mean literally putting a sign in someone else's yard, without their permission? Is that a done thing? Wouldn't you just drop a note in their letterbox?

IIRC, using a letterbox without a stamp is illegal

Amazing. I live elsewhere in the world so had never heard of that. You are honestly not allowed to put a letter in a friend/neighbour's letterbox? A letter under the doormat then?

>You are honestly not allowed to put a letter in a friend/neighbour's letterbox?

Yes, that is correct. If you want to hand deliver a note to your nextdoor neighbor, their mailbox is off limits. The federal government views that mailbox as some sort of exclusive domain of the USPS. You can leave the note anywhere, other than their mailbox.

The text of the law is:

>Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter, on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.[1]

[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1725

(An interesting possibility would be to affix the correct USPS stamp on the note, void said stamp by crossing it out, then hand delivering the note into someone's mailbox. In that case the correct postage would have been paid, so maybe that might be legal? Not a lawyer, just pondering an interesting possibility out loud.)

such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter

That all sounds commercial, not dropping a note to a neighbour.

Interestingly, the most frequent violators of this statue are commercial in my area. Periodically an Amazon contractor will place my package in the mailbox, very rarely UPS or FedEx but by far the biggest violator is DHL. I must believe that DHL instructs their contractors or employees to place packages in the mailbox since there is a greater than 50% chance when I get a DHL package that it ends up in the mailbox.

It's no secret to homeowners you get money upzoning your parcel in California. They don't care. The whole purpose why somewhere like Ranchos Palos Verdes or wherever else in LA county that fights development and remains a suburban, SFH enclave is because the locals want it that way. They bought in specifically because it was this way. And they will elect officials that fight on their part to preserve it in this way. They don't want to approve split lots in the palos verdes peninsula, that would generate traffic in the peninsula that they don't currently have. They already limit public access to public beachheads as much as possible to nonresidents, over fears of traffic.

That must be a coast thing for HOAs. A lot of the Midwest specify minimum acre(s)

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