Council Tentatively Adopts Plan to Slow Pace of Building

The Los Angeles City Council tentatively approved a plan Wednesday to slow construction throughout the city but, in the face of heavy lobbying by developers, the council stopped short of imposing a building moratorium.

The 9-1 approval of the plan, after years of study, means that the council is beginning to comply with a state law requiring zoning in Los Angeles to follow the city’s detailed plans for each community.

Each plan had been formulated and adopted with advice from the community, and the state law was designed to see that zoning followed residents’ preferences. It took effect July 1, 1982, but the council has been slow to obey it.

Action was spurred by a Los Angeles County Superior Court decision last week giving the council 120 days to rezone. In many cases, the zoning laws permit much more building than the community plans allow.

The council’s solution would require developers to obtain approval for projects that do not conform to the community plans. Under the proposal, developers’ requests would first be heard by the Planning Commission and could be appealed to the council.

Another council vote is required before the plan can take effect.

Zoning violates community plans in about a fourth of the 800,000 parcels in the city, most of them in central, northeastern and southern neighborhoods.

The action is less restrictive than the citywide building moratorium proposed earlier for projects that do not conform to the plans.

The ban on construction would have been in effect until the zoning of 200,000 lots was changed to agree with community plans.

There were several developers in the audience. Although they did not testify, they had visited council members and argued against several restrictive features that ultimately were not adopted.

One lobbyist in particular, H. Randall Stoke, who represents developers and others who are major campaign contributors to council members, was singled out for comment during Wednesday’s three-hour debate.

Councilman Marvin Braude, upon hearing details of the council proposal, said: “That sounds like Randy Stoke’s language.”

“Why would Randy be here when he could be having fun?” asked Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky.

Braude and Yaroslavsky, fearing a rash of development before the law takes effect, unsuccessfully sought to set Feb. 1 as the deadline for developers to obtain building permits under existing zoning.

“We’re inviting everyone who owns property in Los Angeles to file for a building permit in order to get in under the wire,” Braude said.

Councilman Howard Finn contended that it takes builders months to prepare building plans, and that none could prepare plans quickly enough to get in under the wire.

The plan tentatively adopted Wednesday gives the council final say over requests by developers to build at densities greater than those allowed in the community plans. This prompted a suggestion from Councilman Ernani Bernardi that it would open a new source of campaign contributions for council members.

“We’ve been cussing out developers,” Bernardi said.

“But frankly, we prefer to deal with them on a one-on-one basis because it works out nicely on an annual (fund-raising) dinner basis.”

“The floodgates are still open,” said Jerome Daniel, chairman of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., one of the groups suing the city. He contends that the council action left a loophole for developers to obtain approval for projects before the new measure takes effect.