Council Waives Trip Fees on 8 Properties

The Los Angeles City Council on Friday waived more than $1 million in fees imposed on eight Ventura Boulevard property owners to pay for a 20-year master plan for enhancing the historic thoroughfare.

The so-called “trip fees” are levied against property owners based on the number of rush-hour automobile trips their properties are expected to generate on the boulevard.

In all, 38 property owners have appealed about $8.4 million of the $12.5 million in fees initially imposed. Only $1.2 million has been paid.

The council is slated to hear dozens more of the cases in the next few weeks. Each of the property owners had earlier agreed to pay the fees in exchange for building permits while details of the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan were being hammered out between 1985 and 1991. However, many now say they would never have done so had they had known how high the fees, which range from $2,000 to $800,000, would be.

Fred Gaines, an attorney for four property owners who had fees reduced Friday, said the appeals have called into question the future of the trip-fee system.

“In general, I think there is a feeling that the trip-fee assessment program does not work well,” he said.

In fact, the concept of funding the plan through trip fees has come under attack in recent months for being unfair to newcomers and for discouraging development on the recession-ravaged boulevard.

On Thursday, the Planning Commission asked city staff to examine new ways of paying for the $222-million plan.

Ken Bernstein, planning deputy for council member Laura Chick, said the appeals may fuel opposition to the fees.

“The relative success of these appeals has fed into the argument that trip fees should be reduced and replaced with some other financing mechanism,” he said.