Support for Council File 15-0020: Collecting Fees Related to Condition Compliance
Proposed by Marc Saltzberg on March 18, 2015
Motion failed to be adopted by a majority of Councils before the June 2015 deadline
Passed by
- West LA-Sawtelle Neighborhood Council
Motion
Refers to City Council file 15-0020
WRAC supports Council File 15-0020 asking that the Planning Department to report back in 45 days on the best practices of other jurisdictions, including the County of Los Angeles, to ensure proper resource allocation for condition inspections and enforcement AND further asks that the Council instruct the Planning Department, in consultation with the City Attorney, and any other appropriate City department, bureau, or agency, to work cooperatively to propose a method by which inspection fees related to condition compliance are required and collected by the City prior to the release of any final approval of a projects.
Background
- Additional requirements are frequently placed on development projects through conditions of approval. “…often these conditions go overlooked because of the City’s lack of resources to enforce its own conditions. On 01/06/2015, the Los Angeles Times published an article, “In L.A., Conditions Placed on Developers Go Unheeded (http://www.latimes.com/local/cityhall/la-me-development-ignored-20150105- story.html#page=1),” that spoke to the need for additional fees to cover the expense of allocating more staff to inspect and enforce the conditions of approval on the City’s many projects. In other jurisdictions, such as Los Angeles County, conditions of approval specify the number of inspections required over the duration of the grant term necessary to ensure proper compliance with the conditions of approval. The conditions also obligate an applicant to cover the cost of such inspections. This approach ensures that the City has the resources it needs to enforce commitments made to the community, and helps to keep neighborhoods first.