Development Permits Focus of D.A. Probe

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is investigating a former county planner who allegedly issued hundreds of illegal certificates allowing land to be developed without undergoing the usual environmental and other reviews, according to records and interviews.

District attorney’s officials Thursday confirmed that they are investigating Emmet Taylor, who business records show owns a real estate consulting firm in Fullerton. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, in whose district most of the violations have been found, said Taylor was accused of taking bribes to issue the compliance certificates.

The county moved to fire Taylor from the Department of Regional Planning late last year, after finding that dozens of the permits he issued were invalid, according to county documents. Taylor is contesting the termination, and his attorney has denied that Taylor violated county policy.

Taylor was one of two planning employees in charge of issuing certificates of compliance, obscure but powerful planning documents that allow land to be developed without going through the standard public hearing and environmental review process required by modern zoning laws. The certificates apply to parcels that have development rights that predate the more recent growth restrictions.

Certificates of compliance are issued after the owners of the parcels can produce evidence that they were legal lots before those development laws were enacted. In its letter of termination, the county alleges that Taylor issued 57 certificates without showing that the parcels in question were legal before modern development law.

Taylor has appealed his termination to the county Civil Service Commission. His attorney, Richard Shinee, said in an interview in August that he expected the civil service hearing to show that Taylor followed county policy in issuing the certificates. The hearing, initially set for last week, has been postponed.

Neither Shinee nor Taylor could be reached Thursday.

County planning officials have hired a number of private title company investigators to review all of the certificates of compliance that Taylor issued since 1995. County supervisors in May approved $350,000 to pay for the planning department’s review.

Of the 541 certificates reviewed over six months, said Paul McCarthy, section head for Land Division Resources and Enforcement, 321 are invalid, mostly scattered lots across the northern part of the county.

“That leaves us with 772 more to go,” McCarthy said.

Planning officials said the situation has created some headaches for people whose property may be affected by the improper certificates.

James Hartl, director of the county’s planning department, said that dealing with property owners caught in the planning morass may end up being the most challenging aspect of the complicated case.

Many of the certificates were issued on vacant land that did not have adequate fire road access or flood protection measures. In some cases, homes were built and then sold to unsuspecting people, McCarthy said.

In those instances, McCarthy said, the county would legalize the lots, clearing up the problem for the owners.

Other cases may be more difficult because of neighbors or others whose property may be affected by the improper development on the disputed lots.

The county has set up a toll-free number, (800) 444-8841, for property owners to call to find out the status of their case. “The action that we’ve taken is to fast-track the system so those who have been victimized can verify their [certificates of compliance],” Antonovich said.

Los Angeles’ case is just the latest uproar over the once-obscure documents, which have grown increasingly popular among developers seeking to circumvent environmental restrictions on growth.

Some builders have used them to drive up the value of pristine land by clearing the way for dense development. They then sell the land to preservationist groups for a profit.

The practice drew the greatest attention earlier this year, when the Hearst Ranch applied for 279 certificates of compliance to allow it to build housing subdivisions along the Central Coast. That led the Legislature to pass a law limiting the ability of developers to subdivide property through certificates of compliance and adjustments to lot lines, which was signed by Gov. Gray Davis last month.

The local case turns on different issues, especially because the lots approved by Taylor are scattered throughout the county and blend in with existing lots, McCarthy said.