Conditional Use Permit System to Be Streamlined

The city’s conditional use permit system--damned last week by Mayor Richard Riordan as worthy of a Communist country--is to be overhauled to make it easier for non-controversial projects to win City Hall approval, a top Los Angeles city planner promised Tuesday.

City planners are looking “at anything and everything” to streamline the slow-moving and complex system for regulating private schools, churches, auto-related businesses, places of adult entertainment, liquor stores and scores of other activities that the city deems potentially disruptive, said Deputy Planning Director Frank Eberhard.

On Tuesday, the council approved technical amendments that will make it easier for applicants to get permits. But more ambitious reforms are in the works, Eberhard promised in an interview.

“You’re not going to get me into a shooting match with the mayor over this issue,” he said. “I agree with him.”

Under the current system, new businesses required to obtain a conditional use permit must defend their proposed operations at a series of public hearings, especially if they are controversial. That process can be costly in terms of time and money, especially if lobbyists and attorneys are hired to guide the applicant through the bureaucratic and political maze.

Neighborhood activists see these hearings as a way to reshape a project to their liking. But critics of the permit process, such as Riordan and City Councilman Hal Bernson, believe that the system gives obstructionists and homeowners too much say over businesses.

“Homeowners shouldn’t have control over projects,” said Bernson, who as chairman of the council’s planning committee is an influential figure in city land-use matters. “They should have an opportunity to have their voices heard but not the ability to control, stall and delay projects.”

An audit of the Planning Department, completed two years ago, also blamed the City Council for making the conditional use process unwieldy to administer by continually adding to the list of businesses it covers.

One proposal under review is to shorten that list by removing non-controversial businesses, Eberhard said. Another proposal would give automatic approval to some applicants that meet a standard set of conditions. Although controversies arise from permit applications, 95% of them are granted, Eberhard estimated.

Larger, more controversial projects would still be required to complete the current process for securing a permit.

Last week, Riordan told a group of manufacturers that one of his top priorities will be to strip away City Hall red tape that inhibits business. The new mayor was especially critical of the conditional use process, comparing it to the legendary bureaucratic mazes of a Communist country.

Riordan’s remarks won strong plaudits from his audience, the California Industrial Leadership Council.

But what sounds good to business sounds dangerous to some homeowner activists.

“It’s worrisome because we don’t know where it’s going,” said Van Nuys homeowner activist Don Schultz about the streamlining movement at City Hall. “It sounds innocent enough, but what safeguards to neighborhoods are going to eliminated? We don’t know. We’ve got to see how this thing plays out.”

Traditionally, homeowner activists have used the conditional use process to control the impact of new businesses or other regulated activities on their neighborhoods.

For example, to obtain a conditional use permit an applicant may have to limit its operating hours, add parking spaces, hire security guards or install bright exterior lighting.