Local News in Brief : 2-Unit Development Rules Eased

Bowing to developers’ concerns, the Torrance City Council has eased some of the restrictions imposed last week on 2-unit developments.

In order to ease density in the city, the council passed an emergency ordinance last week tightening requirements on area, parking, roof height and storage space in 2-unit projects.

But by a unanimous vote Tuesday, the council agreed to drop a 500-square-foot storage requirement and to reduce the open-space requirement from 50% of the lot to 33% in all R-2 residential zones.

The revision will also allow developers to consider driveways as open space. The earlier restrictions did not.

Several builders at Tuesday’s meeting said the strict requirements would make designing new projects difficult.