Landowners Should Know of What’s in the Plans

Property owners who want to know what they can and can’t build on their property usually turn to the local zoning or sign ordinance. That isn’t enough, however.

In Calabasas, for example, the proprietor of a proposed fast-food restaurant has been battling with the city over his desire to put up a 30-foot-high sign near the restaurant. Such a sign would be permitted under Los Angeles County’s sign ordinances, which Calabasas adopted when it incorporated in 1991. However, the yet-to-be-adopted General Plan of this fledgling city would prohibit such signage, so Calabasas doesn’t want the sign built.

Along a 17-mile stretch of Ventura Boulevard, property owners need to be in compliance with a special plan, which in effect takes precedence over city zoning ordinances. The so-called Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan overrules local zoning where the plan comes in conflict with the boulevard’s own zoning. The plan covers such things as building heights, setbacks, parking conditions and signage. Compliance with zoning regulations isn’t enough to keep property owners along Ventura Boulevard out of trouble with the city of Los Angeles, said Fred Gaines, partner at the Sherman Oaks law firm Reznik & Reznik. “The Specific Plan is like a whole other set of regulations.”

San Fernando Valley and Ventura County are, in fact, governed by several types of plans that determine development. A mixture of so-called general, community and specific plans map out what can and can’t be built in different communities, and changes in these plans can affect property values.

General, community and specific plans have a significant impact on the nature and scope of development, said William Fulton, editor of the California Planning and Development Report in Ventura. A city’s general plan lays out the broad policies for land-use, infrastructure and development. Because Los Angeles is so large, it has 35 community plans--including 14 in the San Fernando Valley area--that get into more specifics about where certain types of construction will be encouraged or discouraged. Los Angeles also has more than 20 specific plans that often deal with details such as commercial signage and special regulations applied only to the specific plan area. Examples of specific plans include Warner Center and most of Ventura Boulevard.

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L.A.’s current General Plan was adopted in 1974 and it has long been in need of an overhaul, say many local planners. Known as the Centers Concept, this 21-year-old plan provided for the development of centers such as Warner Center and Century City--along with plans for linking the various centers with a transit system. The centers got built over the years, but the transit system is still waiting to be put into place. A new General Plan is now being considered after two years of drafting. By the end of the year, the Los Angeles City Council is expected to take a vote on the new General Plan.

“The basic planning concepts in the new plan are not very different from before,” Fulton said. “What is potentially different is that this new one may be taken seriously. The Los Angeles City Council was known for not sticking to the plan previously,” he said. The result was that many projects not covered in the General Plan got built anyway, and proper transportation links weren’t established.

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“There is a dichotomy between what general plans are supposed to be and what they really are,” said Valley resident Gideon Kanner, an attorney with the Downtown Los Angeles law firm Crosby, Heafey, Roach & May and professor emeritus at Loyola Law School. “They are supposed to be a blueprint for development in Los Angeles,” Kanner said. “But the council members don’t pay any attention to it unless someone forces them to. Many projects over the years have been in conflict with the General Plan,” Kanner said. “If it is good planning, it may not be good politics.”

Many Los Angeles residents would prefer to see very little dense development, when that in fact may be the best way for a particular area to develop, Kanner said. “Most voters want low-density, single-family lots. High-class people live in low-density communities--that’s the picture of luxury and achievement,” he said. That partly explains, he said, why so many residents balk at the idea of planning for a concentration of buildings in a small site.

To try to keep the city of Los Angeles’ proposed new General Plan on track, the plan provides for a new monitoring system and annual reports to the City Council about how carefully the plan is being followed, said Woodie Tescher, vice president for urban planning at Envicom Corp., an Agoura Hills company hired by the city of Los Angeles to coordinate the many private consultants hired by the city to come up with the General Plan.

“There was confusion about the city’s policy for growth,” Tescher said. “Over time, the effectiveness of the old plan has been eroded.” That erosion has meant more confusion and less certainty for developers and homeowners alike. This new plan is supposed to last until 2010.

Some changes that would come about under the new plan include encouraging development that is more pedestrian-friendly, and creating a new mixed-use zoning designation that would allow for developments that combine residential and commercial uses. Current zoning allows mixed use, Tescher said, “but it’s a very onerous review and entitlement process.”

The new General Plan will also mean changes in the city of Los Angeles’ 35 community plans. These plans, Tescher noted, will go through various revisions and rewrites to conform with the principles in the General Plan. The changes aren’t intended, however, to change the current entitlements of properties in the city. That would require a change in zoning or in a specific plan that in certain cases takes precedence over zoning regulations.

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A series of community workshops have been scheduled for Valley residents who want to know more about the proposed new General Plan. On Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., a workshop is scheduled at Chatsworth High School. On March 18 at 9 a.m., a workshop is scheduled at Beachy Avenue Elementary School in Arleta. And, on March 21, another workshop is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. at Canoga Park High School.

After these workshops, there will be further Planning Commission hearings and a vote by the Los Angeles City Council is likely to happen in late fall, Tescher said.