Planning Groups Gain Aid, Support of County

San Diego County’s community planning groups should be given county staff and supplies to help them do their jobs, but their roles should remain much as they are today, county supervisors decided Wednesday.

Faced with a Planning and Land Use Department recommendation that could have opened the door to dramatic changes in the planning group structure, the board opted instead to provide the staff but to do little else to change the way the groups work.

The 13 planning groups have 15 elected members who review development proposals and other planning issues in the unincorporated parts of the county. Their decisions are informal and advisory, and are often ignored by the county Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors.

Still, members of the planning groups turned out in force Wednesday to argue for the status quo, fearing that any tinkering with the groups might lead to their elimination, as some pro-development forces have suggested.

“We’ve got a good planning group,” Don Dussault of Fallbrook told the board in comments echoed by members of a half dozen other groups. “Don’t spoil it.”

In addition to the two new staff members approved in concept by the board, Chief Administrative Officer Clifford Graves had recommended that the planning department be allowed to study the groups and consider reducing the number of members and appointing, rather than electing, some of them.

That was a position favored by the construction industry.

Kim Kilkenny, spokesman for the Construction Industry Federation, argued that too many of the planning groups have members who have been elected without opposition, a situation he said has allowed the groups to be dominated by residents with a “parochial” point of view.

“Everybody tries to fight for their own little turf and meanwhile, the broader regional issues go unaddressed,” Kilkenny said. “We all suffer from that.”

Michele Pasco, a consultant for the Land Use Council, said the groups should be pared to seven members, three of them appointed by a county supervisor, and should be forbidden from reviewing routine projects that do not conflict with the county-adopted community plan.

As a compromise, Supervisor Brian Bilbray suggested that the groups that were working well be left alone, but that panels having trouble be altered.

“Let’s treat the patient that needs treatment,” Bilbray said.

But only Supervisor George Bailey supported Bilbray’s motion, and it died on a 2-2 vote. Supervisors Leon William and Paul Eckert voted no, and Susan Golding was absent on vacation.

The board then voted 3-1, with Bilbray dissenting, to approve two paid county staff members to coordinate the planning groups’ work and $10,000 to pay for operating expenses such as postage. The board also approved county-financed training for new planning group members.

Walter Ladwig, director of the Department of Planning and Land Use, said afterward that the board’s decision meant the end of months of review of the planning groups’ function and effectiveness. He said Wednesday’s action put the board on record supporting the groups.

“The board made a decision as to what direction they want to take with community planning groups,” Ladwig said. “Providing the staff indicates that there’s going to be support for them. In the past few years there’s been some question about that.”