Would Duplicate County Action : City Panel OKs Legal Aid for Planning Groups

A San Diego City Council committee, responding to growing unrest among the members of its 35 volunteer community planning groups, Wednesday agreed to offer them legal protection from developers’ lawsuits.

The council’s Rules, Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee agreed to an ordinance providing the volunteer planners with city attorneys in the event they are sued, and indemnifying them for financial damages if they lose. The vote was 4-0, with Councilwoman Gloria McColl absent.

The action, which would provide the same protection that volunteer planners in the county’s unincorporated areas receive, came after two city planning groups voted not to make recommendations on controversial developments for fear of being sued.

‘A Good Sign’

“I think (the committee vote) is a good sign for community planning in San Diego,” said Jim Kelley-Markham, former chairman of the Uptown Planners. He was sued by a developer last month.

“The City Council is obviously behind community planning groups, and this is going to strengthen the system that provides the best direction in guiding planning in San Diego,” he said.

The council agreed to discuss in a closed session next week whether to take up Kelley-Markham’s case. He was sued by the owner of property on the edge of Goldfinch Canyon who alleged Kelley-Markham wrongfully influenced the city’s Planning Department to deny him permits to build nine condominiums on the property.

Councilwoman Judy McCarty, who said lawsuits against volunteer planners could be used as an attempt to gain favorable decisions through intimidation, said she hopes the committee’s decision sends developers a message.

“If they make an attack on the community planning group, that’s an attack on this City Council,” McCarty said. Such attacks “will influence” how council members deal with those developers’ requests, she said.

Volunteer planners are elected by their communities to review matters that include zoning variances, subdivision plans and exceptions to the city’s slow-growth Interim Development Ordinance.

Their recommendations are advisory to the Planning Commission and the council. The city attorney’s office has told the groups that because they are merely advisory bodies, lawsuits against them would be considered frivolous and would be thrown out of court.

But in November, the Pacific Beach group suspended recommendations on discretionary planning matters when members realized they would have to pay the costs of defending themselves against such lawsuits and would be liable for court judgments against them.

The Clairemont Mesa group followed suit Feb. 16. And last week, leaders of most of the city’s groups were asked to raise the issue with their members.

The events mirror a test of wills played out last September when the county’s 26 planning groups demanded legal protection after suits were filed against two Valley Center volunteer planners. The Board of Supervisors, which first voted not to offer the protection, reversed itself after three groups staged a virtual work stoppage and others threatened to do the same.

The city groups brought their demand for legal aid to the rules committee in December, which at the time agreed only to seek a state law protecting them from litigation. Wednesday’s vote represented a change of heart for the committee.

A draft ordinance will be brought back to the committee and, if approved, forwarded for consideration by the full council.