COMMUNITY ADVOCACY MAKES A DIFFERENCE - Right now, we’re in the midst of what may be the toughest and most important time of year for Los Angeles city government. It’s our annual budget deliberations, when we hold intense discussions during weeks of grueling meetings to determine the city budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
This process has become gloomy given the city’s budgetary woes and the still suffering economy, but we need to be innovative and not merely reactive.
One particular innovation, creation of a Condition Compliance Unit within the Planning Department, is coming up for a Budget Committee vote this Tuesday, May 15 and a full Council vote as early as Friday, May 18, and I think it would be invaluable for City Councilmembers to receive grassroots feedback before then – especially because, I'm happy to say, community advocacy is playing an increasingly robust and vital role in our governance and our decision-making.
Daunting challenges abound, so I deeply appreciate the remarkable leadership and extensive efforts of our budget advocates, who have provided a roadmap full of useful ideas about how we might best deal with the budget.
These advocates have teamed with me on some very big items that have been covered in the media, from restoring full funding for Fire Department services to improving the number of streets we pave each year.
There are, however, some seemingly modest items in the budget that may go unnoticed but that warrant your attention because they are very important for protecting and improving communities.
One such matter involves establishing a small but effective Condition Compliance Unit that would provide enforcement staff within our Planning Department so that planning conditions are fully enforced.
Neighborhood Councils, homeowners associations and other concerned stakeholders devote countless hours to the planning process. Through your valiant and unstinting efforts, the City of LA gains crucial local input about proposed projects, which in turn allows for important conditions to be suggested, stipulated and agreed upon before a project is ever approved.
You have every right to expect that such efforts pay off, and that any resultant conditions will be enforced. Unfortunately, that’s often not the case.
Presently building code violations are enforced by the Department of Building and Safety, but there is oftentimes no one to enforce conditions that have been imposed by the Department of City Planning.
(Most of the time, the lack of enforcement by Planning has to do with a business that is failing to meet its conditions, but sometimes a residential property is the faulty party.)
This situation results in an unacceptable and deplorable situation where businesses ignore planning rules and communities are stuck unprotected due to a bureaucratic distinction between departments.
Neighborhoods suffer, as do businesses that follow all the rules at considerable expense only to have their economic competitors operate with blatant disregard for the regulations that are supposed to apply.
I discussed this problem with Michael LoGrande, Planning Director for the City of Los Angeles, and asked him for a solution. What he has suggested, and what I have now formally proposed for inclusion in the budget, is the creation of a Condition Compliance Unit that will operate within the Planning Department to enforce conditions on various Zoning Administrator cases ranging from restaurants and private schools to coastal development permits and yard adjustments.
I think this concept deserves your urgent consideration because, after all, so many CityWatch readers are also volunteers who earnestly participate in meetings where proposed projects are vigorously vetted.
This proposal does not require any new ordinance or laws; it simply requires hiring three individuals to do the work. These positions are not paid for out of the City’s General Fund, in fact every cent of their salary and benefits will be paid for out of development application fees and any fines or penalties from violators.
I think this program is long overdue and I hope you will join me in supporting its inclusion in the City’s 2012-2013 budget.
As you may know, I have also proposed a comprehensive revision to code enforcement within the city, known as Administrative Code Enforcement (ACE).
Actually, when I first took office, I was urged by many members of Neighborhood Councils and HOAs to take the lead in championing this concept, which has proved successful when tried in cities such as San Diego and Sacramento.
ACE is not connected to the newly proposed Condition Compliance Unit, though both are meant to protect neighborhoods from the degradation that occurs when there is a significant lack of enforcement of adopted standards.
ACE is still being discussed in City Hall, and while I work on such long-term reforms, it is important to provide communities with immediate protection.
If you are among the many neighborhood activists who have taken part in a meeting out of concern about some local land use issue, you deserve to know that what you did actually mattered. The proposed Condition Compliance Unit could be one key step forward.
Please feel free to contact me ([email protected]) [[hotlink]] and any other councilmember to share your views about this proposal – and thanks again for all your great work and civic patriotism.
(Paul Koretz is the LA Councilmember for Los Angeles Council District 5.) -cw
Tags: Paul Koretz, Council District 5, Planning, Condition Compliance Unit, Planning Department, Building and Safety, ACE, City Hall, zoning
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 38
Pub: May 11, 2012
