Revised Warner Center Plan Cuts Some Fees for Developers in Half : Woodland Hills: Builders would get a major break on levies to finance transportation improvements.

A new version of a long-range blueprint for Warner Center development that was released Wednesday slashes in half the fees commercial developers would be required to pay to help finance transportation improvements in the area.

The fees are necessary to underwrite the cost of the major transportation improvements needed to accommodate the traffic generated by the 20 million square feet of new commercial development that would be allowed under the plan. The 1,100-acre area already has 15 million square feet of commercial development.

Councilwoman Joy Picus, who represents the Warner Center area, declined to comment on the new version of the plan. “We haven’t had a chance to read it,” said Joy Neull, Picus’ press secretary.

Last November, the Planning Commission warned city staff that the original proposal to charge developers a fee of $14,990 for each new auto trip their projects generated would stifle development. The commission then directed the planning staff to amend the plan to lower fees.

The plan unveiled Wednesday contemplates charging developers a fee of about $7,500 for each new auto trip generated.

But Robert Sutton, deputy director of planning, denied Wednesday that his staff reduced the fees simply to make it cheaper for developers to build. He said the lower fees were largely a result of a closer look at the actual costs of buying rights of way for road improvements.

Much of the proposed plan had been made public previously. A public hearing on the revisions contained in the documents released Wednesday is to be conducted next Tuesday before the Planning Commission. Sutton said he expects the commission to vote Aug. 27 on a final version of the plan.

Another new item in the new version is a proposal that the development of Warner Center proceed in four phases--with three checkpoints along the way at which city planners would study the effect of increased traffic on the area.

“The phasing is the key to making this plan work to protect the neighborhoods,” Sutton said.

The checkpoints would be reached when development totals 21.5 million, 26.8 million and 31.5 million square feet. Potentially, 35.7 million square feet of commercial development could be built under the plan.

At each checkpoint, the public would have a chance to comment on the success of the plan in meeting its goals, Sutton said.

The original plan included only two checkpoints, and only one where the public could offer its opinion. “We’ve got more phases now and more public hearings,” Sutton said.

But Robert Gross, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said he was disappointed that the new plan does not call for one of the checkpoint reviews to be conducted by a citizens group. Gross, who had not seen the document, said he also wanted to see how the city justified the sharp reduction in trip fees.

Gross and Picus have previously opposed the development ceiling of 35.7 million square feet for Warner Center, saying it was too high.