Ventura Blvd. Fee Reduction Backed

In a move that could have major financial implications for developers who have built on Ventura Boulevard in the past decade, the Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday called for deep reductions in the developer fees that finance the boulevard’s Specific Plan.

It was not immediately clear by how much the developer fees would be reduced, other than that it would be by far more than 50%, the percentage proposed by city planners. Some observers said they believed that the fees would be reduced by at least 82%.

If the City Council agrees with the Planning Commission, developers and property owners who have put in new development on the boulevard since 1985 and have already paid the fees will get substantial refunds.

The Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, adopted in 1991, provided for street improvements such as intersection widenings, parking and shuttles. The plan also provided for developer fees to pay for most of the plan’s costs because it was believed that new development, by creating more traffic, would generate the need for the improvements.

Developers complained that the fees were exorbitant and unfair to new builders, while a citizens panel overseeing the plan contended that it called for too many intersection widenings. Responding to these concerns and correcting an arithmetic error, the planning and transportation departments proposed scaling back the plan’s budget from $222 million to $77 million.

Commissioners appeared to approve of staff’s proposed spending plan and the budget’s new allocations for intersection widenings, parking, shuttles and landscaping. For example, the allocation for intersection improvements has decreased from $152 million under the existing plan to $19 million under the proposed plan.

But the board rejected a proposal to calculate developer fees according to square footage, type of development and location of the development, in favor of a proposal much closer to the one suggested at the meeting by Fred Gaines, an attorney with Reznik & Reznik.

Gaines, who represents developers who have legally challenged the fees, proposed a flat fee based only on a building’s square footage and its location.

Gaines suggested that developer fees only be collected to the extent that they cover the cost of certain intersection widenings--not the parking, shuttles and other programs that they must help pay for under the existing plan.

The commission decided that developer fees should be limited to covering the cost of specified intersection widenings and the parking that would be eliminated because of the widenings.

According to Gaines and Jeff Brain, chairman of the citizens review board, that would mean developers fees would be reduced by at least 82%. That figure could not be confirmed by the city Thursday.

Commissioners said they were acting to ensure that Los Angeles does not drive away businesses because of overly high fees, and to make developers responsible only for those negative impacts that can be attributed to them.

“We’ve got something that was ill-conceived to begin with, that was fraught with mistakes,” Commissioner Robert Scott said. “Is that conducive to business?”

Panelists asked staff to incorporate its decisions into a recommendation that the commission is expected to sign off on at its March 2 or 9 meeting, after which the commission will send the proposal to the City Council for a final decision.