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2166 North Stanley Hills Drive / 2172 Stanley Hills Drive / California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) / Appeal

Council File 26-1033

Under review — the City Council is weighing whether a proposed two-home development in the Hollywood Hills needs a deeper environmental review, given the site's location in a fire hazard zone and landslide area. Neighbors have challenged the planning commission's decision to exempt the project from full environmental analysis.

Introduced
2026-07-29
Last changed
2026-08-28
Status
open
Expires
2028-08-28
Committee
Planning and Land Use Management Committee
Initiated by
Area Planning Commission (APC) / Central
References
Cases: ZA-2025-1386-CU1-HCA-1A; ZA-2024-6711-CU1-HCA-1AEnvironmental: ENV-2024-6712-CE-1ARelated Cases: ZA-2025-1386-CU1-HCA; ZA-2024-6711-CU1-HCA

Brief

The Central Area Planning Commission has submitted a California Environmental Quality Act appeal regarding proposed development or land-use decisions at 2166 and 2172 North Stanley Hills Drive. The appeal challenges the environmental assessment (Case ENV-2024-6712-CE-1A) and is related to conditional use and height variation applications. The file is currently pending review in the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, having been referred on July 31, 2026.

Full summary

The underlying project involves Stanley Family Residence LLC, controlled by Rouzbeh Zarrinbakhsh, proposing to build two new two-story single-family homes on adjacent vacant lots at 2166 and 2172 North Stanley Hills Drive in the Hollywood Hills. Each home is approximately 2,091 to 2,338 square feet with an attached two-car garage, swimming pool, spa, and two retaining walls up to 10 feet tall. The site sits on a substandard hillside street in the Laurel Canyon/Bird Streets Hillside Construction Regulation District, within a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone, a landslide area, and the Hollywood Fault Zone. The project required conditional use permits because the lots front on Stanley Hills Drive, a narrow hillside street that does not meet city standards. The applicant sought two waivers from hillside road requirements: one to avoid widening the street directly adjacent to the property to the required 20-foot minimum (the Adjacent Minimum Roadway standard), and another to avoid providing a continuous 20-foot paved roadway from the driveway to the edge of the hillside area. The Central Area Planning Commission voted 3-0 on April 14, 2026, to deny the first waiver — requiring the applicant to widen the road along the property frontage — while granting the second waiver, finding it infeasible to require improvements across properties the applicant does not control. The commission also determined the project was categorically exempt from CEQA under Class 3 and Class 32 exemptions, finding no unusual circumstances that would trigger further environmental review. Neighbors organized as the Concerned Citizens of Stanley Hills Drive, represented by attorney Jamie T. Hall of Channel Law Group, appealed the commission's decisions. Their opposition centered on fire safety access, compliance with the Baseline Hillside Ordinance, excess grading, and slope stability concerns. While the entitlement decisions themselves are not further appealable, state law allows a separate appeal of the CEQA categorical exemption determination to the City Council once all entitlement appeals have been exhausted. That is the narrow question now before the council: whether the commission correctly found the project exempt from CEQA, or whether the circumstances of this hillside site — fire hazard, landslide risk, narrow street access — are sufficiently unusual to require more rigorous environmental analysis. The matter was transmitted to the City Council on July 27, 2026, and referred to the Planning and Land Use Management Committee on July 31, 2026. The council has 75 days from the appeal filing date of June 16, 2026, to act. The file is assigned to Council District 4, represented by Councilmember Nithya Raman.

Activity (4)

  • 2026-08-28 Planning and Land Use Management Committee scheduled item for committee meeting on September 22, 2026.
  • 2026-07-31 California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Appeal submitted by Area Planning Commission (APC) / Central dated July 29, 2026.
  • 2026-07-31 Area Planning Commission (APC) / Central document(s) referred to Planning and Land Use Management Committee.
  • 2026-07-29 Document submitted by Area Planning Commission (APC) / Central, dated July 27, 2026.

Documents (20)

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