Hearing Revisions Protested : Homeowners: The council proposal would reduce the number of residents notified about meetings for projects requiring special permits.

San Fernando Valley homeowner groups told a City Council planning committee Tuesday that they object to a proposal to reduce the city’s public notification requirements for hearings on neighborhood land-use issues, such as liquor sales and subdivision construction.

The proposal would reduce the number of residents and property owners notified about public hearings for projects that require special city permits. Currently, those with property within 500 feet of such projects receive notices. The change would limit notification to those within 300 feet.

The changes, suggested by planning officials as a way to save the city money, would also rescind the requirement that hearings be advertised in local newspapers.

The public hearings that would be affected by the new notification process would include meetings on businesses that request conditional-use permits to sell alcoholic beverages, make zoning changes or add new subdivisions.

Planning officials said they had not determined how much money the city spends to notify residents of such public hearings, nor do they know how much the city would save by reducing the notification area. When the City Council voted in 1990 to extend the area from 300 to 500 feet, however, city officials estimated they would spend an additional $60,000 annually.

But homeowners said the current notification process is worth the added cost.

“What we are talking about here is participatory democracy,” said Bill Jasper, president of the Encino Property Owners Assn. “Your priorities should not be what it costs. Your priority should be how many people you can notify.”

Alan Kishbaugh, president of the Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., agreed. “If we have to err, let’s err on the side of providing more participation,” he said.

Council members Joel Wachs and Laura Chick both said they opposed the proposed changes and suggested that the city study ways to more efficiently increase notification of public hearings.

“The message should be to increase public participation” not reduce it, Wachs said.

But the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee declined to make a decision on the proposal, deciding instead to refer the entire matter to a newly formed commission that is studying ways to streamline the bureaucracy that controls development.

If the commission supports the proposed changes in the public notification process, the entire matter will be returned to the Planning and Land Use Committee for further study and discussion, said Councilman Hal Bernson, chairman of the committee.

Bernson, however, said it is clear the current process is “quite costly,” inefficient and needs to be overhauled.

For many years, the city met the minimum state requirement to notify property owners within 300 feet of a project that requires a special use permit. But in 1990, the City Council, trying to increase public participation in local planning issues, voted to expand the notification area to 500 feet.

Since then, however, planning officials said there has been little evidence that the increased notification has led to more public participation.

During the meeting Tuesday, the representatives of several homeowner groups suggested alternatives to increasing public participation without increasing cost.

Anson Burlingane of the Shadow Hills Homeowners Assn. suggested the city eliminate the “legalese” used in newspaper notifications and use simpler terms so residents can more easily understand the issues facing their neighborhoods.

Bernson said the city could replace the newspaper notifications in some instances with commercials on the city’s public access cable television channel, which he said is available to about 35% of city residents.