Group Protection

San Diego’s 35 volunteer community planning groups, which review proposals for zoning changes and developments in their communities, are caught in an unnecessary legal bind.

Members of these quasi-official planning boards are elected, and the groups’ bylaws must be approved by the city. The Planning Commission and the City Council often heed their advice.

Yet, they are not official enough to merit legal representation by the city in the event their actions get them sued.

It’s a situation that needs fixing.

Two community planning groups have stopped making recommendations because they fear the personal liability they might face. Who can blame them? We are impressed that so many others have decided to accept the risk for now.

Although it seems unlikely that a court would allow a suit to proceed against a group that is only advisory, nonetheless, if a board member were sued, he or she would most likely have to hire an attorney to get the case dismissed.

This hardly seems fair.

The county faced the same problem last year, and the Board of Supervisors initially voted to deny legal representation. The board later reconsidered, however, and unanimously voted to grant legal protection to these important members of the planning community while pursuing a more permanent solution at the state level.

We recommend that the City Council promptly remedy this problem. If the city’s attorneys are right and the planning group members have nothing to worry about, the city should not hesitate to protect them as long as they act in good faith and without conflict of interest.

The whole planning process would suffer without their counsel, and it would be unfortunate if fear of being sued tainted their recommendations.