Valleywide : Fee Cuts Approved for Boulevard Plan

In an unexpected ending to a long-running debate over a master plan for Ventura Boulevard, Los Angeles City Council members, community activists and developers on Tuesday publicly united for the first time behind a proposal to change the way the plan is funded.

After listening to proposal supporters, the Planning and Land Use Management Committee of the City Council approved the proposal, which would cut by 76% the developer fees intended to help pay for the plan.

Councilwoman Laura Chick said Tuesday was a landmark day for the beleaguered Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, which the city has been struggling to resuscitate for more than two years.

“It’s the day,” Chick said. The proposed changes “give eminent good sense” to the plan, she said.

The plan, as adopted in 1991, had a $222-million price tag and called for street widenings, additional parking and shuttles to improve traffic flow to make the San Fernando Valley’s “Main Street” a more desirable place to shop.

Developers were to pay for more than half of the improvements, but many appealed their fees, which were inflated by incorrectly calculated costs and other problems. Because the plan has brought in little revenue, few improvements have been made and supporters and detractors have spent much of the past four years arguing over what to do next.

The proposal approved Tuesday would make corrections to the plan budget that would reduce it by $147 million to about $75 million. Developers would be responsible for funding $11 million of the improvements. Additional turn lanes would be added at 11 fewer intersections--19 as opposed to 30 in the current plan.

In March, the Planning Commission proposed cutting developer fees by 86%. During the past four months, City Council members Laura Chick, Marvin Braude and Joel Wachs worked with community leaders to devise a counterproposal that would reduce developer fees by 74%.

During the past two weeks, developers--who had backed the Planning Commission’s proposal--agreed to the counterproposal in which developer fees were scaled back to the 76% figure.