SB 79 Low-Rise Maps Are Live on ZIMAS: Don’t Hire an Encino Backyard ADU as If It’s a Ventura Blvd Apartment — Check the Lot First

Quick answer: Check the lot on ZIMAS before you hire apartment-style Low-Rise drawings for an Encino backyard. Los Angeles City Planning says SB 79, the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, goes into effect on July 1, 2026. City Council adopted the Low-Rise Ordinance and the Phased Implementation Ordinance on June 23, 2026; Planning states both became effective June 30, 2026. Local SB 79 and Low-Rise eligibility maps are available through ZIMAS. A Low-Rise Incentive Area Project, as defined in Ordinance No. 188967, is a five-or-more-unit job on a mapped site — not a ministerial backyard ADU under Government Code Section 66310 et seq. Encino and Ventura Boulevard are where we work. They are not a verified Low-Rise map hit for any named address. Look up your parcel.

An accessory dwelling unit (ADU) is a secondary dwelling with complete independent living facilities on the same lot as a primary residence; the state ministerial ADU chapter is Government Code Section 66310 et seq. Senate Bill 79 is the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act, codified at Government Code Sections 65912.155 through 65912.162. The City’s Low-Rise Ordinance is Ordinance No. 188967 (Council File 25-1083-S3; case CPC-2026-1797-CA). The Phased Implementation Ordinance is Ordinance No. 188968 (Council File 25-1083-S4; case CPC-2026-1798-MSC). A Low-Rise Incentive Area Project is a project on a site located, in whole or in part, within a Low-Rise Incentive Area that creates five or more residential units. ZIMAS is the City’s Zone Information and Map Access System. An Opportunity Station Area is a one-half mile radius around a qualifying Tier 1 or Tier 2 transit-oriented development stop that is more than 50 percent Moderate or Higher Opportunity Area. A Fire Restriction Area in the Low-Rise Ordinance is land located in both a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and a Hillside Area. This post is not a stack of extra ADU, JADU, and SB 9 units. It is a hire screen: map first, product second.

Key Takeaways

• Planning’s SB 79 page, fetched for this article: “Senate Bill (SB) 79, the ‘Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act,’ goes into effect on July 1, 2026.” Ordinance 188967’s operative-date section cites the same July 1, 2026 state date in Government Code Section 65912.157 and says the local ordinance becomes operative when it becomes effective upon publication, in advance of that date.
• Planning: “The ordinances were adopted by City Council on June 23, 2026. On June 30, 2026 the Low-Rise Ordinance and Phased Implementation Ordinance became effective.” Council File 25-1083-S3 records Final Ordinance No. 188967 dated 06/30/2026, “Ordinance posted/published. Ordinance effective date: June 30, 2026,” and “Council action final” on 07/01/2026. Council File 25-1083-S4 records Final Ordinance No. 188968 dated 06/30/2026 and the same June 30, 2026 effective date.
• Planning: “Local SB 79 and Low-Rise eligibility maps is available through the City’s Zone Information and Map Access System, or ZIMAS.” We did not look up a named Encino address. Do not hire from a neighborhood rumor. Open zimas.lacity.org for the lot you own.
• Ordinance 188967’s title: it amends LAMC Sections 12.03 and 12.22 A.38 “to locally implement Senate Bill 79.” Section 14(m) says the subdivision “is intended to phase-in implementation and pause the immediate application of” SB 79 pursuant to Government Code Section 65912.161(b). The urgency clause affirms a pause “by permanently or temporarily exempting and protecting sensitive sites, including those in low-resource neighborhoods as designated by the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones, and those sites hosting or adjacent to industrial uses,” using Low-Rise Incentive Areas and Opportunity Station Areas as the local vehicle.
• Low-Rise is not a backyard cottage. Ordinance 188967 defines a Low-Rise Incentive Area Project as construction, addition, or remodeling that results in five or more residential units on a mapped site. Table 12.22 A.38.(g)(3)(i) prints LR-1 at 5–11 units (2 stories for 5–6 units, 3 stories for 7–16 units in the LR-1 footnote) and LR-2 at 12–16 units. That is a small apartment / missing-middle envelope, the kind of street front you already see on stretches of Ventura Boulevard — not a one-door ADU in an Encino rear yard.
• Yard numbers we actually read in Ordinance 188967, Low-Rise Incentive Area base incentives, “Yards”: side yard setback of four feet for a three-story or higher structure, or three feet for a two-story or one-story structure; rear yard setback of eight feet; alley setback of zero feet. Those are Low-Rise Incentive Area reductions for a qualifying five-or-more-unit project. They are not Encino ADU setbacks, and they do not prove your lot is in the Incentive Area.
• Hillside / Very High Fire Hazard land can be treated differently. The ordinance defines a Fire Restriction Area as land in both a VHFHSZ and a Hillside Area, and the urgency clause names VHFHSZ sites among the sensitive sites the pause is meant to protect. South-of-Ventura Encino is a geography, not a map stamp. Confirm VHFHSZ and Hillside on ZIMAS for the parcel.
• The ADU path remains Government Code 66310 et seq. State ministerial ADU rules did not turn into SB 79 apartments because the Low-Rise maps went live. Do not pay for Low-Rise drawings on a lot whose live product is still a backyard ADU, and do not assume a Ventura Boulevard–style low-rise is legal on every Encino house lot because the city adopted a transit ordinance.
• Planning’s page records that on March 24, 2026, City Council directed Planning “to pursue a phased Implementation approach to implement SB 79 locally by 2030.” That is Council direction on the official page. We did not retrieve a sentence on that page or in Ordinance 188967 stating that HCD has accepted, or must still accept, the citywide pause. Do not hire on a law-firm blog’s 2030 guarantee.

Are SB 79 Low-Rise maps actually live on ZIMAS?

Yes, according to Los Angeles City Planning’s SB 79 page. The sentence on that page is: “Local SB 79 and Low-Rise eligibility maps is available through the City’s Zone Information and Map Access System, or ZIMAS.” That is the official lookup. It is not a 121 map, not a Ventura Boulevard rumor, and not a screenshot of someone else’s parcel.

Planning still links exploratory StoryMap material and a disclaimer that some maps and resources “are in draft format and intended for exploratory purposes only.” For a hire decision, use ZIMAS on the address you own. The Low-Rise Ordinance itself says eligibility is contingent on a final TOD Zone map from the Southern California Association of Governments under Government Code Section 65912.160(f), and that in the absence of that map eligibility is determined from currently available SCAG information. If ZIMAS and a designer’s pitch disagree, the city’s system is the one LADBS will read — not a mood board of a three-story courtyard.

We did not query a named Encino street. Encino is where 121 Design Build sits, at 17801 Ventura Blvd. That office address is not a stand-in for your lot. Two parcels on the same block can sit on different sides of a Low-Rise Incentive Area, an Opportunity Station Area, a Fire Restriction Area, or none of the above.

What did Council adopt, and when did the ordinances take effect?

Two ordinances, two Council Files, two case numbers — all on the Planning page and the Clerk records we fetched.

Planning: Council adopted both ordinances on June 23, 2026. Both became effective June 30, 2026. Adoption materials list Low-Rise Ordinance Number 188967 (June 2026) and Phased Implementation Ordinance Number 188968 (June 2026). Cases: CPC-2026-1797-CA (Low-Rise) and CPC-2026-1798-MSC (Phased). Council Files: 25-1083-S3 (Low-Rise) and 25-1083-S4 (Phased Implementation).

Council File 25-1083-S3, title “SB 79 (Wiener) / Low-Rise Ordinance / Code Amendment,” lists Final Ordinance No. 188967 dated 06/30/2026. File activity for 07/01/2026: “Ordinance posted/published. Ordinance effective date: June 30, 2026.” Same date: “Council action final.” A 06/23/2026 line records Council adopted the item subject to reconsideration; a 06/30/2026 line records a further Council adoption, vote 13–0–2, Adopted Forthwith. Council File 25-1083-S4, title “SB 79 (Wiener) / Phased Implementation Ordinance / Ordinance,” lists Final Ordinance No. 188968 dated 06/30/2026, case CPC-2026-1798-MSC, and “Ordinance posted/published. Ordinance effective date: June 30, 2026.”

The state clock is later than the local effective date. Planning: SB 79 “goes into effect on July 1, 2026.” Ordinance 188967 Section 15 says the local ordinance becomes operative when it becomes effective upon publication under Charter Section 253, “in advance of the July 1, 2026 effective date of the Abundant and Affordable Homes Near Transit Act set forth in Government Code Section 65912.157.” The recitals state SB 79 was signed in October 2025. We are quoting those pages, not inventing a third effective date.

Is an Encino backyard ADU the same product as a Ventura Blvd Low-Rise apartment?

No. Mixing them is how an owner pays for the wrong set.

An ADU is still an accessory dwelling under Government Code Section 66310 et seq. It is ministerial when it meets objective state and local ADU standards. It is one extra door (or a conversion, or a junior unit under that chapter) on a lot that already has a primary home. It is not a five-unit Low-Rise Incentive Area Project.

Ordinance 188967’s definition of Low-Rise Incentive Area Project is the hire screen: a site in the Low-Rise Incentive Area, in whole or in part, “that involves the construction of, addition to, or remodeling of any building or buildings that result in the creation of five or more residential units.” Table 12.22 A.38.(c)(1)(i) lists Low-Rise Incentive Area Project under “Minimum Total Units Required: Five or more.” The base-incentive table then prices density, FAR, parking, and height for LR-1 and LR-2 subareas in that five-to-sixteen-unit band. That is apartment-scale missing-middle housing near transit — the street wall you already recognize on commercial stretches of Ventura Boulevard in Encino and Sherman Oaks — if, and only if, the lot is on the map and the project qualifies.

A backyard Encino ADU does not become a Low-Rise building because SB 79 is in the news. A Ventura Boulevard–style two- or three-story walk-up does not become legal on a residential rear yard because the city published a ZIMAS layer. The product is the statute that actually applies to the parcel. Check ZIMAS first. Then hire the drawings that match that product.

What yard numbers does the Low-Rise ordinance actually print — and who do they apply to?

They apply to a qualifying Low-Rise Incentive Area Project that is taking the ordinance’s yard reductions. They do not re-write ADU setbacks citywide, and they do not tell you whether an Encino lot is eligible.

Quote Ordinance 188967, Low-Rise Incentive Area, Yards: a project is eligible for a reduction of an otherwise required Yard standard to these minimums. Side yard setback of four feet for a three-story or higher structure, or three feet for a two-story or one-story structure. No interior side yard setback for buildings that are part of the same development. Rear yard setback of eight feet. Alley setback of zero feet. Front yard is a separate sentence: no more than the average of adjacent buildings along the same street frontage or 15 feet, whichever is less, with a corner/vacant-lot alternative.

Those numbers look familiar if you have been shopping three-story courtyard schemes. That is the point. They are the envelope for a mapped five-or-more-unit Low-Rise job, not a template you drop behind a single-family house on a lot that ZIMAS does not place in the Incentive Area. If your live product is an ADU, the ADU chapter — not this table — is the setback file. We are not printing Encino-specific eligibility. We are printing the ordinance’s own yard list so nobody confuses it with a backyard cottage.

How should Encino owners check the lot before hiring drawings?

Open ZIMAS. Search the address you own. Read the Planning and Zoning information and the SB 79 / Low-Rise layers Planning says are there. Then classify the job in writing: ministerial ADU under 66310, Low-Rise Incentive Area Project of five or more units, something else, or not eligible.

Ask four questions the drawings cannot answer for you:

• Does ZIMAS show this parcel in a Low-Rise Incentive Area, an Opportunity Station Area, both, or neither?
• Is the program five or more new residential units on that mapped site, or is it a backyard ADU / conversion / junior unit under the ADU chapter?
• Is any of the site in a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and a Hillside Area (the ordinance’s Fire Restriction Area), or otherwise in the sensitive-site set the urgency clause names — VHFHSZ, low-resource CTCAC areas, industrial sites?
• Who will file the permit as the Applicant when LADBS reads that classification — the same team that drew it, or a later contractor who was not in the map meeting?

Encino south of Ventura Boulevard includes hillside and fire-mapped land on many streets. The ordinance says those VHFHSZ-in-Hillside sites are among the sensitive sites the local pause is built to protect. That is not a sentence that your lot is exempt, and it is not a sentence that a flat Valley lot north of the Boulevard is in. It is a reason to read ZIMAS instead of hiring a three-story Low-Rise set because a neighbor “heard SB 79 is live.”

Planning’s March 24, 2026 Council direction, still on the SB 79 page, was to pursue phased local implementation of SB 79 by 2030. Ordinance 188967 Section 14(m) pauses immediate statewide SB 79 application pursuant to Government Code Section 65912.161(b), and says that if the subdivision becomes inconsistent with that section as determined by the Director of Planning, SB 79’s own provisions apply. We are not adding an HCD-acceptance requirement that those pages did not state. If a pitch depends on “the pause holds until 2030 because HCD will bless it,” make the pitcher show the official document. Until then, the hire is: map the lot, pick ADU or Low-Rise or neither, and do not draw the other one.

Design-build vs architect plus a later contractor when ZIMAS is the first decision

Hire the team that will open ZIMAS with you before schematic, write down whether the live product is a 66310 ADU or a five-or-more-unit Low-Rise Incentive Area Project, and refuse a retainer for the product the lot does not support. Split design and construction is how a Ventura Boulevard apartment envelope gets drawn on a backyard Encino lot: the architect designs to a three-story courtyard, nobody checks the Incentive Area layer, and the contractor who bids later treats the city correction as a change order.

An owner can read Planning’s SB 79 page. An owner cannot, from a rendering, tell whether the program is a ministerial ADU, an LR-1 five-to-six-unit two-story building, an LR-2 twelve-to-sixteen-unit building, a site in a Fire Restriction Area, or a lot that is on none of those maps. That classification is the job. A California-licensed architect stamps architecture. The person who will pull the permit has to decide, in writing, which statute the first submittal is under.

If you already have an architect you trust, keep them — and put the ZIMAS printout in the first memo: Low-Rise Incentive Area yes or no, Opportunity Station Area yes or no, VHFHSZ / Hillside yes or no, ADU path versus five-or-more-unit path. If that memo does not exist, you do not have a map-first team. You have a Ventura Boulevard drawing looking for a backyard.

How can 121 Design Build help Encino owners check the lot before hiring the wrong set?

121 Design Build is an Encino design-build firm. We will not take a retainer to draw a Low-Rise Incentive Area apartment on a lot ZIMAS does not place in that area, and we will not freeze a ready ministerial ADU because SB 79 maps went live. For a homeowner on a Ventura Boulevard–corridor, south-of-the-Boulevard, or Valley lot, the first hour is a parcel screen, not a unit mix.

Our ADU & JADU service is the 66310 path: one extra door, conversion, or junior unit on a lot that still reads as a house-plus-accessory file. If ZIMAS actually puts the site in a Low-Rise Incentive Area and the owner wants five or more units, that is a different product — density, FAR, height, and the yard table quoted above — and it has to be scoped as that product, not as a “big ADU.” We have not published an Encino Low-Rise map hit as a case study, and we are not going to invent one. What we will do is open ZIMAS with you, say which statute the lot supports, and refuse to price the other set.

121 Design Build is at 17801 Ventura Blvd, 2nd floor, Encino, CA 91316. Call (424) 600-1100 or (424) 600-2100, email info@121designbuild.com, or visit https://www.121designbuild.com/. To review an Encino or Los Angeles lot against live SB 79 / Low-Rise ZIMAS layers before you hire apartment-style drawings — or to keep a backyard ADU on the ADU path — contact 121 Design Build or call (424) 600-2100. Bring the address. We will read the parcel, not a corridor rumor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are the Low-Rise maps on ZIMAS as of August 31, 2026?

Planning’s SB 79 page states that local SB 79 and Low-Rise eligibility maps are available through ZIMAS. That is the sentence we are following. Confirm on zimas.lacity.org for your address. We did not look up a named Encino lot for this article.

When did LA’s Low-Rise and Phased Implementation ordinances take effect?

Planning: adopted by City Council June 23, 2026; both became effective June 30, 2026. Council File 25-1083-S3: Ordinance No. 188967 dated 06/30/2026, ordinance effective date June 30, 2026, Council action final 07/01/2026. Council File 25-1083-S4: Ordinance No. 188968 dated 06/30/2026, same June 30, 2026 effective date. State SB 79 itself goes into effect July 1, 2026.

Does SB 79 on ZIMAS mean I should hire three-story apartment drawings for my Encino backyard?

Not unless ZIMAS shows the lot in a Low-Rise Incentive Area and the job is actually a five-or-more-unit Low-Rise Incentive Area Project. A backyard ADU is a different statute (Government Code 66310 et seq.). Hiring Ventura Boulevard–style Low-Rise drawings for a house-plus-ADU lot is how you pay for the wrong envelope.

What setbacks does the Low-Rise ordinance list?

For a qualifying Low-Rise Incentive Area Project taking those incentives: side yard four feet if the structure is three stories or higher, three feet if it is one or two stories; rear yard eight feet; alley zero feet. Those are ordinance quotations, not ADU setbacks and not a finding that your Encino lot qualifies.

Is south-of-Ventura Encino automatically in — or out of — Low-Rise because of fire hazard?

Neither, until you read the parcel. The ordinance defines a Fire Restriction Area as land in both a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone and a Hillside Area, and the urgency clause names VHFHSZ sites among protected sensitive sites. Look up VHFHSZ and Hillside on ZIMAS. Do not treat “south of Ventura” as a map.

Did HCD already lock LA’s pause in until 2030?

Planning’s page records Council’s March 24, 2026 direction to implement SB 79 locally by 2030. Ordinance 188967 pauses immediate SB 79 application pursuant to Government Code Section 65912.161(b). We did not find a sentence on those official pages stating that HCD has accepted that pause, or must still accept it, for it to hold. Do not hire on that assumption.

Is Encino under Los Angeles County for this map?

No. Encino is in the City of Los Angeles. The lookup is City ZIMAS. The files are City Planning and LADBS. County Building and Safety is the wrong window.

Is this legal advice?

No. This article is general information from a design-build and permitting perspective. Confirm live map layers on ZIMAS and confirm the correct statute — ADU versus Low-Rise versus neither — on your specific address with LADBS, City Planning, and, if needed, your own attorney.

Sources

• Los Angeles City Planning: Senate Bill (SB) 79
• Los Angeles City Clerk: Council File 25-1083-S3 (Low-Rise Ordinance)
• Los Angeles City Clerk: Council File 25-1083-S4 (Phased Implementation Ordinance)
• Final Ordinance No. 188967 (Low-Rise Ordinance PDF, dated 06/30/2026)
• City of Los Angeles: ZIMAS
• California Government Code Sections 65912.155 et seq. (SB 79)
• California Government Code Section 66310 et seq. (state ADU law)

This article is general information from a design-build and permitting perspective and is not legal advice. Confirm live SB 79 and Low-Rise layers on ZIMAS and confirm ADU versus Low-Rise eligibility on your specific address with LADBS and City Planning. We did not verify that any named Encino lot is or is not in a Low-Rise Incentive Area.

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