Building Permit Proposals Unveiled : Development: Revisions are designed to streamline L.A.’s costly, complex system. But task force’s chairman says opposition from homeowners groups is likely.

Pushing to make economically struggling Los Angeles a friendlier place for business, a task force of building and land development experts Tuesday unveiled a battery of proposals aimed at streamlining the city’s complicated, costly permit process.

The 83 recommendations--including freezing permit-related fees and instructing city employees in customer service--grew from 14 months of work by a committee appointed by Mayor Richard Riordan and City Councilman Hal Bernson. The panel was headed by attorney Daniel P. Garcia, former Planning Commission president and lobbyist and current president of the Community Redevelopment Agency board.

Garcia, discussing the proposals of the 23-member Development Reform Committee, acknowledged that the measures are likely to encounter opposition from some of the city’s powerful homeowner groups that have fought to control development in their neighborhoods. The groups’ leaders previously complained about having no representative on the committee.

But Garcia said the committee’s purpose was to “set up a fair and coherent system” so landowners can know in advance what they can build, how long it will take and how much it will cost.

“We don’t say, ‘Throw out the regulations,’ ” Garcia said. “This is not about leniency; this is about fairness.”

The committee report comes a week after another task force, Progress LA, released a survey that found that Los Angeles loses business to nearby cities that have less costly, less time-consuming permit processes. That group, while not connected with the city, was partially financed by Riordan, who promised during his 1993 election campaign to make the city more efficient.

Among the recommendations unveiled Tuesday, most of which will require City Council approval, are proposals to:

* Appoint a “case manager” to help each applicant through the process.

* Cut the length of time it takes to get permits by consolidating several processes or undertaking them simultaneously.

* Waive or reduce fees for projects beneficial to the public, such as affordable housing.

* Preclude “arbitrary” changes to previously approved building plans and stop city employees in different departments from issuing conflicting requirements.

* Hold a single public hearing for all approvals.

* Streamline and update the city’s processes for determining whether a proposed project complies with the California Environmental Quality Act and ensure that the city’s regulations conform to federal and state requirements.

Although the committee was formed to help create a better business climate, Garcia said homeowners who want to remodel or build new houses will benefit as much, if not more, than big business owners and large development firms. That is because individuals and small firms do not have the money to hire expediters and cannot absorb the costs of delays, city-ordered plan changes and high fees, he said.

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Borrowing data compiled by Progress LA, Garcia noted that the fee for a zoning change application for a single-family home was $3,711, up 258% from the $1,035 charged in 1986. To apply for a zoning change for a commercial building costs $10,325.

The president of the city’s largest coalition of homeowners and renters said he was skeptical of the committee’s motivations.

Alan Kishbaugh, president of the 250,000-member Federation of Hillside and Canyon Assns., said he had not received a copy of the report. But, based on several public hearings that the committee held and on some of the streamlining that already has taken place, Kishbaugh said he fears that residents will be shut out of the decision-making process.

“They didn’t want our input,” Kishbaugh said.

The real problems afflicting the city’s permit process, said Kishbaugh, whose organization represents 55 residents’ groups in the Santa Monica Mountains, are “inefficiency and uneven application of existing laws.”

But Bernson said the task force’s recommendations are needed because the city cannot afford “to continue to be non-competitive.” He added that he will ask Council President John Ferraro to quickly initiate work on the proposals.