San Diego Council Agrees to Back Volunteer Planners

In a decision that puts San Diego squarely behind its volunteer community planners, the City Council on Monday agreed to defend the planners from developers’ lawsuits and to pay judgments against them if they lose.

The decision will allow members of two planning groups that had stopped offering recommendations on development--and others that had considered doing the same--to screen projects without the fear of costly lawsuits that could sap their personal savings. If approved by the council at a second reading, the new ordinance will take effect in 45 days.

“I think I’m off the hook,” said Jim Kelley-Markham, the former chairman of Uptown Planners and one of only two community planners who is currently a defendant in a developer’s lawsuit. “I’m confident that the city will back me.”

Must Undergo Training

The council’s unanimous approval of the ordinance gives the planners protection from lawsuits arising from decisions they make while conducting their duties during regular meetings and while offering advice to the council. The planners must agree to take a city training course on rules and procedures governing meetings, but the ordinance protects planners who, in the past, did not have such training.

The council will not pay any “punitive damages” awarded to plaintiffs who prove in court that a planner acted in bad faith, was corrupt, showed malice in making a decision or committed fraud.

Elected by residents of their neighborhoods, the members of the city’s 35 community planning groups are responsible for screening new building projects, updating community plans, awarding zoning variances, and granting exemptions to the city’s slow-growth Interim Development Ordinance.

Their decisions are merely advice to the city’s Planning Department and the council, but council members often place great weight on their opinions in making a final decision on a project.

Talk of Boycott

In passing the ordinance, the council moved quickly to quell talk of a boycott that had been spreading among volunteer planners as recently as February. On Feb. 16, the Clairemont Mesa Planning Committee became the second group to refuse to issue decisions on new projects out of fear of being sued. The Pacific Beach Community Planning Committee had adopted that stance in November.

The refusals came after the city attorney’s office repeatedly advised the planning groups that lawsuits against them would be thrown out of court because their opinions were merely advisory. But planning group members responded that they could spend thousands of dollars defending themselves before achieving that result.

Kelley-Markham, who must appear at a court hearing on his suit Friday, said Monday that his homeowner’s insurance policy has been covering his legal expenses so far. But fellow attorney John Lomac has been forced to hire an attorney to defend himself from the lawsuit filed by James Martinez III and Erwin Guedalia, Kelley-Markham said.

Monday’s council decision gives city volunteer planners the same protections now enjoyed by the county volunteers in the unincorporated areas. Those groups won the legal help in the same fashion last September. They had threatened to stop working unless the county Board of Supervisors came to their aid after two Valley Center planning groups were sued.