HFZ: Yes, sadly—though i think there is good logic to prohibit more density in fire prone area, and HOAs are already dense, so in your case it doesn't make sense.
HOA: yes, for now that is a blocker. This was also initially a problem with the 2017 legislation enabling ADUs, but in 2019 the state expanded the law to overrule HOA's. We'd like to see that as well, and can easily give you the resources to contact your legislators (coming soon on the search tool, we can help at [email protected] for now)
LA County had relatively liberal interpretations of the ADU law, we hope they will reform some rules to make lot splitting easier!
All and all, there are still millions of ideal SB9 lots—I am very sorry your's isn't—and i think HOA restrictions are a load of crap!
Very often not, and a central part of their purpose is to prevent densification that might otherwise be allowed by law.
So get together with other homeowners around that and any other dissatisfaction with the HOA and disband it. Or take it over, either way.
Yes, that is correct. If you want to hand deliver a note to your nextdoor neighbor, their mailbox is off limits. The federal government views that mailbox as some sort of exclusive domain of the USPS. You can leave the note anywhere, other than their mailbox.
The text of the law is:
>Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits any mailable matter such as statements of accounts, circulars, sale bills, or other like matter, on which no postage has been paid, in any letter box established, approved, or accepted by the Postal Service for the receipt or delivery of mail matter on any mail route with intent to avoid payment of lawful postage thereon, shall for each such offense be fined under this title.[1]
[1] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1725
(An interesting possibility would be to affix the correct USPS stamp on the note, void said stamp by crossing it out, then hand delivering the note into someone's mailbox. In that case the correct postage would have been paid, so maybe that might be legal? Not a lawyer, just pondering an interesting possibility out loud.)
That all sounds commercial, not dropping a note to a neighbour.
The real reason it doesn't qualify, though, is that my HOA—my entire city of ~650 SFH homes exists behind an HOA—has stated it won't approve SB9-related lot splits. The city itself wrote SB9 language into its bylaws, as required, but the architectural review committee in the HOA won't approve requests.
Moreover, all homes in my city are on septic systems, and LA County has a min lot size requirement for approving new ones. Some lots are large enough to split without dipping under that threshold, but most aren't; that means we have a sanitation reason to reject lot split requests too.
I imagine that similar developments will block lot splits in these ways. Have you run into similar issues? Have you successfully split any lots yet?