No Council Support for $5,000 Fee

In a victory for homeowner groups and a setback to Mayor Richard Riordan, the Los Angeles City Council balked Tuesday at a plan that would have charged residents up to $5,000 if they appealed planning decisions on projects more than 500 feet from their homes.

The proposal, recommended by a panel formed by the mayor, was intended to discourage frivolous appeals and make the city more friendly to businesses and developers.

But nearly every council member criticized the plan, saying the proposed fees are too high and would have a chilling effect on the public’s ability to participate in planning issues.

Instead, they voted unanimously to send the matter to the council’s planning committee for revisions.

“We don’t want to trample on the public’s participatory rights,” said Councilman Marvin Braude.

Under the city’s current fee structure, a resident who opposes a decision by a city zoning or planning panel must pay $64 to appeal to a higher decision-making body, regardless of where the resident lives.

But under the new proposal, residents would have paid a maximum of $150 for an appeal and up to $5,000 if they lived more than 500 feet away from the project they opposed.

The fee could be less, depending on the city’s cost of holding new hearings and issuing notices to interested parties, among other factors.

The fee package was developed by Riordan’s Development Reform Committee, a panel whose membership includes real estate lawyers and other representatives of the development industry. Homeowner groups criticized the panel, saying it has a pro-business slant and does not include enough community representatives.

Councilman Hal Bernson, who was the only voice of support for the plan, suggested modifying it by doing away with the 500-foot standard and instead charging the higher fee to residents who appeal projects outside of their own ZIP Code.

He said the higher fees would ensure that frivolous appeals do not discourage business from settling in Los Angeles.

“Unfortunately, there are some people who appeal everything,” Bernson said. “This impacts the cost of doing business in the city.”

But several council members rejected the ZIP Code proposal, noting that many communities are split up into several ZIP Codes. They said that a resident could opposes a project that is across the street but in a different ZIP Code.

Councilman Joel Wachs, whose district stretches from Studio City to Sunland, objected to the 500-foot standard and the ZIP Code proposal, saying the appeal process is the only way residents can influence what is built in their neighborhoods.

“People shouldn’t have to pay so much for that right,” he said.

Several homeowner group leaders also objected to the new fees and rejected the charges that they file many frivolous appeals.

“We keep talking about making the city business-friendly. Let’s make it citizen-friendly,” said Joseph Gardner, president of Baldwin Hills Estate Homeowners Assn.

Don Schultz, president of the Van Nuys Homeowners Assn., suggested that the council form a new development reform committee that includes an equal number of residents and business leaders.

In an interview after the meeting, Deputy Mayor Sharon Morris said Riordan supports the concept of charging higher appeal fees for people who live farther away from a project but does not necessarily support the fees and standards proposed by his committee.

Still, she said the mayor believes that such a fee plan would make it harder for residents to delay development in the city.