City Suggests Revisions to Master Plan : Development: Commission will hear proposal to drop builders’ ‘trip fees’ related to growth along Ventura Boulevard corridor.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission today hears suggested revisions to the master plan for the future of Ventura Boulevard, with city officials saying deep budget cuts won’t harm the way the San Fernando Valley’s main street will look 20 years from now.

That’s at least partly because some of the current budget projections turned out to be in error.

The earlier, higher estimate set off a multitude of legal quarrels with developers of new projects, who were hit with assessments to pay for it.

The Planning Commission will hear suggested changes from the departments of transportation and planning for dealing with expected development along the corridor that runs 17 miles from Studio City to Woodland Hills.

After that, the proposed revisions will be considered by the Planning and Land Use Management Committee of the City Council, then the full council. No date has been set for those meetings.

The main subject to be discussed today is a proposal to eliminate “trip fees”--assessments that boulevard developers had to pay based on the number of car trips that city officials estimated their developments would generate. They would be replaced by much lower fees based on the square footage of new developments.

The proposed change follows the discovery that the original $222-million budget for improvements to the boulevard was almost $140 million too high, according to the transportation department. The surplus was attributed to an error in calculation, outdated projections of land acquisition costs and street widening plans later deemed unworkable or unneeded.

In addition, the planning department has scaled back projections for new development. Previously, planners had expected builders to create 8.6 million square feet of development by 2005, but now they expect only 4.1 million square feet by 2010.

With less development expected, there will be less need for measures to deal with its effects, such as increased traffic.

It is now suggested to reduce the budget to $77 million, and it will be difficult for those using the street years from now to tell the difference, transportation officials predict.

Under the proposed changes, new turn lanes would still be added at intersections, relieving traffic congestion. Trees, special paving and benches would still be put in along the boulevard, creating a more pedestrian-friendly environment.

“The plan has not substantially changed,” said Robert H. Sutton, deputy director in charge of community planning. “The plan has been corrected to reflect both cost restructuring and errors, and it is hoped that this change will help us make the plan work better.”

The proposed changes have not disarmed the plan’s critics. On one hand, some developers contend that they were forced to pay excessive trip fees under the previous system, which discouraged development. On the other, community leaders expressed concern that the proposed budget cuts will result in too little being done to ameliorate the effects of development.

Gerald A. Silver, a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee that helped the city draft the original plan adopted in February, 1991, predicted gridlock on the boulevard if the number of street widening projects is reduced.

“All I see is a chopping down of the fees to let the developers off the hook,” he fumed.

The planning department says the revised plan would result in widening 19 of the originally planned 30 intersections, although the transportation department says 25 would be widened. The proposed plan also cuts the budget for shuttle buses and public parking, while maintaining full funding for landscaping.

Jeff Brain, chairman of the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan Review Board, which is now overseeing the plan, also said the proposed budget cuts have gone too far, particularly in funds to create additional parking spaces.

Brain, who was responsible for alerting the transportation department to an arithmetic error it made that inflated the original budget by $73.6 million, agreed with Sutton that most of the plan remains intact.

Fred Gaines, an attorney representing six property owners who have appealed their trip fees as being excessive, has said he believes that the new fees are still too high and that they will continue to discourage development on the boulevard.

As of November, 1993, 38 boulevard property owners had appealed $8.4 million of the $12.5 million in trip fees that had been imposed.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ventura Boulevard Plan Working Budget The Los Angeles City Department of Transportation has provided the working budget below, which proposes nw funding levels for various programs of the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan. The working budget provides the basis for a new proposed fee structure for builders who put in new development along Ventura Boulevard. The new fees would be significantly lower than current fees.

Current and Proposed Budgets for Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan (in millions of dollars)

Program Cost Current Proposed % Change Intersection improvement $151.9 $18.6 -88% Off-street parking 19.7 13.3 -32% Transit and shuttles 16.2 10.1 -38% Transportation demand management 0.0 6.1 - Streetscape renovation 17.4 17.4 0% Utility undergrounding 6.7 6.7 0% Staff and administration 10.2 5.3 -48% Total $222.1 $77.4 -65%

Note: Columns may not add up to totals due to rounding Source: Los Angeles City Department of Transportation

Meeting Today

What: Planning Commission

Why: To consider replacing developer fees based on the number of car trips a new development on Ventura Boulevard is expected to generate with fees based on the property’s square footage

When: 9:30 a.m.

Where: Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club, 4848 Kester Ave.