Los Angeles Ordinances

Thousands of homeowners who lost brick chimneys in the Jan. 17 earthquake will be forced to rebuild them under stringent new guidelines that are likely to lead to the use of substitute materials, Los Angeles building officials said Tuesday. An ordinance approved by the City Council requires homeowners to hire an engineer, use steel reinforcement and anchor their chimneys to the frames of their homes.

The nocturnal howls that awoke Lana Kuhlen from a dead sleep five months ago signaled a change in her Woodland Hills neighborhood. * Coyotes were beginning to feast on her neighbor's ducks, chickens and cats, leaving the carcasses on neighborhood lawns. A determined coyote scaled a six-foot-tall fence to eat Kuhlen's own chicken. The experiences did more than wake Kuhlen up. They launched her into a contentious citywide debate over the merits of wild animal trapping.

A federal court judge barred Los Angeles from enforcing its new anti-panhandling law Thursday, saying the 3-month-old ordinance outlawing aggressive begging is discriminatory because it applies only to people soliciting money. In issuing his preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez said the law contains "content-based discrimination" because it treats requests for money differently from other kinds of solicitation.

An ordinance that would have made Los Angeles the largest city in the nation to ban smoking in restaurants was frozen indefinitely Saturday when a coalition of restaurateurs, backed by the tobacco industry, filed more than 96,000 petition signatures aimed at repealing it. The ordinance, which was to take effect Monday, was blocked by a little-known provision in the City Charter that says a measure can be held in abeyance if enough signatures are gathered within 30 days of its becoming law.

After a two-year grace period, the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday began enforcing an ordinance that is expected to oust about 90 sex-oriented businesses located near residential neighborhoods. About 50 of these establishments could be closed in two weeks' time, a Department of Building and Safety official predicted.

As crews began pumping out dangerous methane gas that forced the closure of 50 stores in the Fairfax District, Los Angeles building and safety officials said Wednesday that many homes and businesses required under a 1986 city law to install gas detection devices do not have them. Apparently, city officials said, only high-profile businesses along 3rd Street have the mandated detectors.

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley on Monday proposed a tough city law requiring extensive fire safety installations in more than 500 high-rise buildings--and said the costs should be met by building owners. He said he opposes a suggestion that city loans be used to help pay the costs. Under the mayor's plan, older high-rises not subject to a 1974 sprinkler law would require retrofitting with automatic sprinklers, fire-resistant elevator vestibules and roof-top smoke escapes within three years.

Criminal slum charges were filed Thursday against the owners of two Skid Row-area residential hotels, where inspectors found tenants living in cockroach-infested units without heat or smoke detectors. Scheduled to appear for arraignment April 20 on multiple counts of fire, health and building code violations are Chae K. Ro and Chin D. Ro of Glendale and Dennis Shiraga of Hacienda Heights.

For years, city and county transportation officials have tried to reduce freeway traffic and air pollution by getting car-happy Los Angeles commuters out of automobiles and into trains, buses and subways. Now, they are turning to a century-old alternative mode of transportation: bicycles. The City Council adopted a law this month that requires developers to install bicycle racks and showers in large new commercial and industrial buildings.

Developer Andrew Railla says all he did was a little pruning. But nearby Woodland Hills residents complained Monday that Railla's pruning reduced a 25-foot tree to an 18-inch stump. And now an arborist must decide: Did the developer chop down a separate tree protected by Los Angeles' oak tree ordinance or an unprotected offshoot of a larger tree a few feet away?