Politics & Government

Diamond Bar Places Moratorium on Some Building Permits

City planners, concerned by a real estate investor who has submitted several permits to build guest homes/second dwellings, requested a 45-day moratorium

The Diamond Bar City Council approved a 45-day moratorium on the issuance of permits to build guest homes June 19.

The request was made by city planners concerned by a real estate investor who has submitted several permits to build guest homes/second dwellings on a number of properties along Fallow Field Drive.

Private developers are able to submit so many permits in part due to what the city’s Community Development Director Greg Gubman described as “somewhat lenient development standards.”

Find out what's happening in Diamond Bar-Walnutwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A proliferation of the homes with second units “has the potential effect of changing the fundamental character of the neighborhood from single-family to multi-family, and this pattern could be repeated in other neighborhoods,” Gubman wrote.

The staff wants to review the development standards and set regulations that curtail this kind of development and set rules that will protect the integrity of the neighborhoods, Gubman said.

Find out what's happening in Diamond Bar-Walnutwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Council members passed the moratorium easily and unanimously with no comment. But the staff tried to impress the importance of the urgency ordinance in their reports.

“Thus far, one guest house has been completed, another is under construction on a second property,” Gubman wrote. “And efforts are underway to obtain permits to construct an ancillary dwelling unit on yet another property.”


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