LOS ANGELES CITY PLANNING DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION REPORT

Transcription

1 LOS ANGELES CITY PLANNING DEPARTMENT RECOMMENDATION REPORT CITY PLANNING COMMISSION CASE NO: CPC CA DATE: 7/14/05 TIME: After 8:30 a.m. PLACE: Room 1010, City Hall 200 North Spring Street LA CA CEQA: ENV CE LOCATION: Citywide COUNCIL DISTRICTS: All PUBLIC HEARING REQUIRED PLAN AREA: City of Los Angeles. REQUEST: To present an ordinance amending the Los Angeles City Municipal Code allowing withdrawal of appeals by appellants. SUMMARY: The proposed ordinance enables an appellant to withdraw an appeal. Currently a decision maker must act on an appeal even if the appellant has indicated the desire to withdraw it. The report also recommends policies for the Commission to adopt in implementing the ordinance. Jane Blumenfeld Table of Contents Page Summary 2 Recommendations 2 Findings 2 Staff Report 3 Environmental Impact Appendix A Proposed Ordinance Attached ADVICE TO PUBLIC: *The exact time this report will be considered during the meeting is uncertain since there may be several other items on the agenda. Written communications may be mailed to the Commission Secretariat, 200 North Spring Street, Room 532, Los Angeles, CA (Phone No ). While all written communications are given to the Commission for consideration, the initial packets are sent to the week prior to the Commission s meeting date. If you challenge these agenda items in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing agendized herein, or in written correspondence on these matters delivered to this agency at or prior to the public hearing. As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability, and upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to it s programs, services and activities. Sign language interpreters, assistive listening devices, or other auxiliary aids and/or other services may be provided upon request. To ensure availability of services, please make your request not later than three working days (72 hours) prior to the meeting by calling the Commission Secretariat at (213)

2 SUMMARY The attached ordinance allows an appellant to withdraw an appeal from a Planning Department or a decision-making body action before a final action on an appeal is taken. Currently, since this authority does not exist in the Municipal Code, all appeals must be heard by the decision making body at a scheduled open public meeting. These decision-making bodies include an Area Planning Commission, the City Planning Commission and/or the City Council. That body must take an action on the application, usually to deny the application without prejudice if a withdrawal has been requested, in order to complete the processing of the matter. Adoption of this ordinance would eliminate the necessity for the decision making body to act on withdrawn appeals thereby reducing City costs in processing appeals and unnecessary appearances by applicants, appellants, interested public and staff before decision making bodies. Some administrative actions in implementing the ordinance are recommended. These actions are proposed in order to make persons interested in being heard on a matter aware that a withdrawal of an appeal is possible. Thus persons relying on someone else s appeal run the risk of the matter not being heard unless they file their own appeal. RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. Adopt this report as its report on this subject. 2. Approve the attached ordinance (Appendix A). 3. Adopt as the City Planning Commission s policies the following: a. That all decision letters originating in the Planning Department, where appeals from a decision are possible, contain the following statement: Appellants may withdraw an appeal if the withdrawal is submitted in writing and signed by the appellant(s). Persons wishing to appeal this action should not rely on any other appeals if they wish to be heard. These individuals should file separate appeals on this matter to ensure that their concerns or objections are heard. b. That, whenever possible, when appeals have been noticed and have subsequently been withdrawn, that agendas for the meeting when the appeal hearing is noticed reflect the fact that the appeal has been withdrawn. c. That the Planning Department takes other reasonable steps to inform interested persons of the withdrawal of an appeal(s). 4. Direct the Planning Department to implement the above policies. 5. Adopt the following Findings. 6. Recommend that the City Council adopt the attached ordinance (Appendix A) and findings. 7. Recommend that the City Council, should they choose to adopt this ordinance, consider and adopt similar policies to those approved by the Commission in noticing the withdrawal of appeals on planning matters to the City Council. FINDINGS 1. In accordance with Charter Section 556, the proposed ordinance (Appendix A) is in substantial conformance with the purposes, intent and provisions of the General Plan because the General Plan (as set forth in the Economic Development Chapter of the Framework Element of the

3 General Plan) supports appropriately located and designed projects and seeks to facilitate their establishment. By eliminating unnecessary steps in the review processes, the time to review and act on applications including appeals is reduced and incrementally lowers the cost to applicants in developing projects and thereby facilitates their establishment. 2. In accordance with Charter Section 558 (b) (2), the subject ordinance is directly related to the General Plan, specific plans or other plans being prepared by the Planning Department as described in Finding 1 above. 3. In accordance with Charter Section 558 (b) (2), the proposed ordinance (Appendix A) is in substantial conformance with the public necessity, convenience, general welfare and good zoning practice in that unnecessary steps in the processing of applications in such matters are eliminated and costs to the City are reduced because unnecessary hearings and deliberations by decision making bodies are eliminated. 4. The ordinance is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and City guidelines for the implementation thereof pursuant to Article II, Section 2, Subsection (m) of the Los Angeles City CEQA Guidelines, as it will not have a negative impact on the environment. CON HOWE Director of Planning FRANKLIN P. EBERHARD Deputy Director STAFF REPORT Current regulations governing the processing of appeals by the City have no provision authorizing appellants to withdraw their appeals. Technically that cannot be done. Decision-making bodies only have the authority to approve, approve with conditions, or disapprove an appeal. Currently, the usual practice of decision-making bodies, when a withdrawal is requested by an appellant, is to deny the appeal without prejudice. This is done at a regularly agendized meeting where the appeal has been noticed and is an item on the agenda for the decision-making body to take an action. Staff believes that should the appellant, for whatever reason, determine that he or she does not wish to pursue an appeal, the appellant should be able to withdraw that appeal without further action of any decision-making body. This proposal would save applicants and the City the time and cost involved in preparing for and conducting a hearing and taking an action on an appeal where the appellant no longer wishes to pursue the matter. Costs and time savings would accrue to all if this proposal is adopted. A concern that can be handled administratively needs to be addressed. Sometimes potential appellants have not filed an appeal relying on the fact that someone else has filed. If such an appeal is withdrawn, these persons would not be able to express their concerns on the matter where otherwise they would have been able to do so. Also, appellants need to be made aware 3

4 that withdrawal of appeals must be submitted in writing. Staff has some suggestions on how to address these concerns. First it is suggested that, should this ordinance be adopted, that the Commission direct that all decision letters coming from the Planning Department contain two statements to the effect; (1) that appeal withdrawals are possible and that persons wishing to express their concerns on a matter on appeal, can only be assured of being heard if they file an appeal and (2) that appeal withdrawals can only be done in writing and must be signed by the appellant(s). Secondly, if an appeal hearing has been noticed, that the agenda where the appeal would have been heard contains language, for information purposes only, that the appeal has been withdrawn. The staff would still have the ability to explore other reasonable actions to inform people that appeals are withdrawn such as indicating on the Department s web site that a withdrawal has occurred. The cost of an appeal for aggrieved persons is nominal ($73.60) and is deliberately kept low in order to enable appellants to appeal who might not otherwise be able to afford the expense. The cost of processing an appeal is not covered by this fee. However, aggrieved persons who wish to be heard should be able to afford this amount. This proposal applies to appeals filed pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal Code Sections that contain procedures for some form of discretionary action taken by the Planning Department including the Office of Zoning Administration and the Advisory Agency. The general categories are listed in the table below. Code Category Section Changes to the General Plan Specific Plans and changes to them Coastal Development Permits Historical Preservation Overlay Zones General Provisions Exceptions Nonconforming Uses Conditional Uses Extension and Suspension of Time Limitations Department of Building and Safety Variances Adjustments and Slight Modifications Boundaries of Zones Land Use Legislative Actions Multiple Approvals Low and Moderate Income Housing Airport Approach Zoning Regulations H (Oil) Drilling Site Requirements Public Benefit Projects Approvals of Transfers (Floor Area) Temporary Regulations Relating To Land Use Approvals For Properties Damaged In A Local Emergency Special Approval Provisions For Other Land 4

5 Use Proceedings (in connection with a declared emergency) Critical Response Facilities Site Plan Review Design Review Board Procedures Article 7 of Chapter 1 Article 8 of Chapter 1 Environmental Impact Division of Land (includes tracts, parcel maps and miscellaneous other actions of the Advisory Agency) Private Street Regulations The attached proposed ordinance is exempt from the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) pursuant to Article II, Section 2, Subsection (m) of the City of Los Angeles CEQA Guidelines in this matter is procedural and all applications involved in this ordinance will receive an environmental analysis in accordance with existing City and State laws and regulations. 5

6 APPENDIX A ORDINANCE NO. An ordinance that adds a new section, Sec , to the Municipal Code to allow the withdrawal of an appeal by an appellant(s). Sec. 1 Section is added to the Los Angeles Municipal Code to read: Sec WITHDRAWAL OF APPEAL A. Procedures. At any time before the appellate decision-maker or appellate body makes a final decision on an appeal pursuant to the Sections listed in Subsection C below, the appellant(s) may withdraw the appeal. B. Limitations. The withdrawal of the appeal must be in writing and does not require the decision maker to concur. The withdrawal of the appeal shall be permanent and the decision from which the appeal was taken shall automatically become final. If the appellant withdraws the appeal prior to the end of the appeal period, the decision from which the appeal was taken shall not automatically become final until the end of the appeal period. C. Code Sections. This section applies to appeals filed pursuant to Los Angeles Municipal Code Sections , , , , 12.21, 12.22, 12.23, 12.24, 12.25, 12.26, 12.27, 12.28, 12.30, 12.32, 12.36, , H, 14.00, , 16.01, 16.02, 16.04, 16.05, and Articles 7 and 8 of Chapter 1. 6