Ventura Boulevard Property Owners Get Payment Extension

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted to give 150 recession-pinched Ventura Boulevard property owners four additional years to pay for major traffic improvements around their projects.

But the council got no thanks for its work.

Property owners still complained afterward that the extended payment plan was not good enough. In today’s sluggish economy, 10 years will be needed to pay the hefty “trip” fees, said Fred Gaines, attorney-lobbyist for a dozen of the affected developers.

Wednesday’s council action amended the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, adopted in early 1991 as the blueprint for controlling growth on the San Fernando Valley’s “Main Street.” The plan specified that the trip fees, which are based on the number of vehicle trips a project generates, are to be paid by developers in one year.

The fees are supposed to fund street improvements that will improve traffic flow, even in the face of new development.

Councilman Hal Bernson told his colleagues Wednesday that the four-year payment plan will provide a “safety valve” for developers. “We’re helping them survive through some difficult times,” he said.

Developers affected by Wednesday’s proposal built along the boulevard when interim growth controls were in effect, and continued until the full-blown Specific Plan was adopted.

To get building approvals under the interim-control system, developers were required to sign a so-called “blank check” obligating them to pay whatever trip fees were eventually included when the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan was finally adopted.

A total of 150 property owners who built during the interim-control period have been billed about $13.2 million by the city for the trip fees. But only a fraction have paid the bills, first sent in November and December of 1991.

The final Specific Plan included fees--ranging as high as $4,200 per trip for projects built in Sherman Oaks and Encino--that were much higher than anticipated, the developers complained.

The property owners then asked for extra time to pay the fees. The city Planning Commission recommended a 10-year payment plan, but the council’s Planning and Land Use Committee, chaired by Bernson, recommended the four-year plan adopted Wednesday.

Several council members, including Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who represents San Pedro, criticized the four-year plan, saying it was not generous enough and would contribute to business flight.

But Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents portions of the boulevard in Sherman Oaks and Studio City, rejected the longer payment period.

A 10-year schedule will delay building needed traffic improvements, Yaroslavsky said. A shorter schedule “provides that the community does not have to absorb large traffic impacts without mitigation,” he said.

Others questioned if the amendments to the plan’s fee section were not too generous.

Ken Bernstein, president of the Plan Review Board for the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, complained that new provisions also approved Wednesday to give developers an opportunity to appeal the fees were written too broadly. The board is charged with periodically reviewing the plan and its members--appointed by the mayor and council members--unanimously endorsed the four-year plan, Bernstein said.