CommentsPLANNING HIJACKS-On March 30, the Department of City Planning released a memo signed by the Director of Planning, Vince Bertoni.
The purpose of the memo was to give “guidance” on the way the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan (MSPSP) would be implemented from now on. For many years, projects proposed for the hills below Mulholland Drive needed to be reviewed by the Mulholland Design Review Board. Bertoni has decided to change that. In his memo the Director asserts that the purpose of the MSPSP is to preserve views from Mulholland Drive, so from now on projects that won’t be seen from Mulholland will no longer come before the Board.
This may sound like a small thing, but it’s not. You may be asking why you should care about whether a bunch of wealthy hillside residents get to review projects they may not even be able to see. Actually, this move by Bertoni is just part of a much larger pattern, a sweeping effort by the City of LA to shut the public out of the decision-making process.
Even if you don’t live in the Hollywood Hills, you should be concerned about the severe environmental degradation that’s taken place over the last several years in the Santa Monica Mountains. The City of LA has allowed real estate speculators to cut down trees and carve up hillsides to build spec mega-mansions. But beyond that, this is one more step in the City’s larger attempt to silence anyone who’s not a real estate investor when it comes to land use decisions. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy responded to Bertoni’s memo with a strong letter, sharply critical of these changes, “[…] enacted without prior input from the public or the Design Review Board.” The letter goes on to say. . .
Without question this change in Department of Planning policy will impair public notice and public participation rights in the vast bulk of MSPSP cases. It will result in the immediate degradation of the scenic qualities, ecological capacity, and watershed health of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains.
But this is just one example of City Hall’s ongoing efforts to silence the public. Let’s move on to the Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) Guidelines, which are already having an impact on LA’s neighborhoods. In 2016 LA voters approved Measure JJJ, which instructed the City to prepare a set of guidelines which would allow developers of new residential projects to receive a density bonus in exchange for including a percentage of affordable units. The idea was to increase the amount of low-come housing, but many TOC projects involve the demolition of existing rent-stabilized (RSO) units. Because developers are allowed to count replacement units toward the affordable requirement, in many cases there’s little or no net gain of units for low-income households.
But that’s just one of the issues with the TOC Guidelines. Another problem is that, the way they were written by the City, they appear to go well beyond the language outlined in Measure JJJ. In order to ensure that qualifying projects weren’t stymied, the measure stated that, “Any aggrieved person or resident of the City of Los Angeles shall have the right to maintain an action for equitable relief to restrain any violation of this Ordinance, or City failure to enforce the duties imposed on it by this Ordinance.” In other words, anybody who lives in LA can file an appeal or file a lawsuit if the City does not approve a qualifying project. But the version of the TOC Guidelines adopted by the City includes a provision stating that only owners of, or tenants living in, buildings adjacent to the proposed project can appeal if the City does approve it.
How did this additional language get in there? It wasn’t included in the measure that appeared on the ballot. But the addition isn’t surprising, since City Hall obviously believes that real estate investors have more rights than the average citizen. The addition of the language regarding appeals by tenants and owners seems to be a clear violation of the right to due process. You can’t extend unrestricted rights to one group and then sharply limit the rights of another group. Both groups must have access to the same process.
And things are going to get even worse. Much worse. The City of LA has been working for years on a New Zoning Code (NZC). The NZC will have far reaching impacts on future development in Los Angeles. While the City claims that the main objective is to consolidate and clarify the existing Code, in fact, the move toward a Form Based Code has the potential to fundamentally change LA’s landscape. A look at the chapters on Form, Density and Public Benefits show that in many cases, under the NZC, project applicants can receive substantial increases in floor area ratio and height without having to go through a discretionary approval process. Because density bonusses are built into the code, these projects can go forward without a single public hearing.
There are 15 chapters in the New Zoning Code. If the people at City Hall were really interested in transparency, they’d present the whole thing all at once and schedule outreach meetings in each council district to get public input. But that isn’t what’s happening. Instead, for some strange reason, they’ve tied approval of the NZC to the Downtown Community Plan Update, and for the time being it will only apply to Downtown. Later they plan to apply it to LA’s various Community Plan Areas as the individual plans are updated.
But this isn’t even the most troubling part of the story. The City has pulled out Chapter 13, Administration, a.k.a., the Processes & Procedures Ordinance, and they’ve put it on track to be approved this year, possibly in the next few months. This adopts the rest of the NZC in a piecemeal fashion, this chapter will apply citywide. There are chapter governs the process used for project approvals, and even though the plan is to a number of problems with the proposed Processes & Procedures Ordinance, but let’s start with the fact that it reduces the role that neighborhood councils play. The Ordinance only requires that NCs are notified when public hearings are held. It doesn’t say anything about the Early Notification System, which lets NCs know about all project applications in their area. The Lincoln Heights Neighborhood Council has submitted a Community Impact Statement which explains why this is problematic. . . .
“NCs have historically been apprised of issues related to land use, have acted as a vital forum where the community can present input, and have communicated recommendations to City Planning. Because it currently only requires notification of public hearings, the Ordinance thwarts public input and violates due process.”
And there’s more. This new Ordinance lets project applicants get “adjustments” via a streamlined process that only requires approval by the Director of Planning. Because there’s no clear definition of what an “adjustment” is, there’s a strong possibility this will allow incremental changes that could result in a much different project. Also, because the Director will be making the decision, there’s no requirement that the City give notice or hold a single public hearing. It’s a done deal.
The LHNC points out another big problem with the proposed Ordinance. . .
“The Ordinance expands the power of the CPC, giving it the authority to make decisions on CUPs, HPOZs and other actions. This language must be removed. The CPC is an unelected body, and its function should be to review and make recommendations to elected officials. Final decisions on these matters must be made by elected officials who are accountable to the public.”
In general, the Processes & Procedures Ordinance gives more power to unelected officials and reduces public participation in the approval process. Just like the Director’s new rules for the Mulholland Design Review Board. Just like the additional language that the City inserted into the TOC Guidelines. This is no accident. It’s part of an ongoing effort to shut the public out of the project approval process.
City Hall will argue that the Department of City Planning holds many public hearings, sometimes with hours of public comment. But if you’ve been to those hearings, ask yourself, do you really feel like the people in charge were listening? Or did you get the impression that the outcome was already decided, and that the hearing was nothing more than a show?
Your input is not welcome. The City of LA doesn’t want to hear from you.
(Casey Maddren is President of United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles (UN4LA), a community group focused on better planning and better governance, and a CityWatch contributor.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
