Supervisor Seeks Probe of Planning Department

Citing the Marshall Redman land fraud case, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich on Monday called for an investigation of why the Department of Regional Planning has not moved more aggressively against illegal subdividers.

After a Times article on the agency’s enforcement record, Antonovich called on Planning Director Jim Hartl to report back within 30 days with details of a more “proactive” policy against such abuses.

“Since the citizens of this county are adversely affected by the lack of subdivision enforcement, these issues need to be reviewed and a proactive policy developed,” according to a motion Antonovich plans to present today to the Board of Supervisors.

The supervisor’s motion called for the agency to consult, among others, retired employees and insiders from the legal and business community in its review.

Redman, a 67-year-old millionaire, was charged in May with a massive land fraud stemming from sales of undeveloped Antelope Valley properties his three companies made to low-income Latino buyers.

While officials say they monitored Redman, the regional planning department has been criticized by its own employees and observers for its failure to do more to stop illegal land splits by Redman and others.

Planning officials have acknowledged that they rarely pursued charges against developers but instead continued to collect fines of $669 or more from people who unknowingly purchased land that had been illegally broken down into small parcels.

Hartl on Monday announced that his agency will review its track record and procedures against illegal development. Hartl said changes in state law would enable his office to do a better job policing land development throughout the county.

As a result of the Redman case, the regional planning department is part of a task force devising new ways to detect and prevent illegal land divisions and real estate fraud.

“Out of this task force, I’m hoping that some legislative changes will come about,” Hartl said. “I’m all for that. With better laws, maybe we can do a better job.”