Official Voted on Development She Had Fought

A former Los Angeles community activist who contested a controversial Westwood development voted on the project after she was appointed to the local planning commission without alerting her fellow commissioners to her possible conflict of interest.

Joyce Foster was appointed in September to the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, which is one of seven regional panels charged with reviewing development in Los Angeles.

Before her appointment, she was an activist in Westwood and had criticized aspects of a plan by supermarket giant Albertson’s to convert a local movie theater into a Sav-On drugstore.

Foster was also briefly named as one of seven community activists who appealed the city’s decision to issue building permits for the project.

However, Foster did not mention her prior activities when the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission voted on the community group’s appeal two weeks ago.

Foster said in a recent interview that she saw no reason to recuse herself because she had no financial interest in the project and had removed her name from the appeal months earlier.

“I really was not very much involved. I don’t think I even read the appeal,” said Foster, who also served previously on the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners.

“I have been extremely careful in my dealings.... I try to look at every area, every job, everything that comes before my commission with an open mind.”

Other community leaders involved in the appeal confirmed that Foster had not participated in it.

The city attorney’s office, which advises commissioners on conflicts of interest issues, was not asked by any commissioner to review this case and could not comment on it specifically, spokesman Matt Szabo said.

But Szabo said that, in similar cases, the office has often advised recusal.

“The office takes questions of conflicts of interest seriously and generally errs on the side of caution when advising city officials on whether to recuse themselves when a potential conflict exists,” he said.

The project at Westwood Boulevard and Wellworth Avenue has been a source of controversy in Westwood for several years.

Neighborhood and business leaders objected to the store’s initial plans to sell liquor and stay open 24 hours. Foster had complained about plans for parking around the project.

At issue is whether the developer should have been forced to comply with guidelines designed to reduce sprawl-like commercial development and to make Westwood Boulevard more pedestrian-friendly.

City building and planning officials ruled that the project was not subject to the more stringent guidelines.

When Westwood resident Lila Rioth filed an appeal with the city, Foster was listed as one of the petitioners, documents show.

Rioth said in a recent interview that including Foster’s name was a mistake. And Foster removed her name from the appeal two months after it was filed.

Foster never mentioned this when the appeal came before the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission on May 5.

She voted to support community leaders’ arguments that city officials erred by exempting the Sav-On project from the stricter development guidelines.

Her vote was critical in imposing the stricter guideline for commercial development on the project.