Bernson Urges Relaxation of Land-Use Rules : City Hall: The councilman says it’s time to reduce roadblocks to development. He speculates that the mayor will be supportive.

Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson on Tuesday proposed a sweeping relaxation of a dozen City Hall land-use rules, many established during the building boom years of the 1980s to control growth.

On Bernson’s hit list are measures that require scores of projects to undergo special environmental scrutiny and establish rules for notifying the public of pending sensitive projects.

It’s time to reduce land-use roadblocks to development, Bernson said in an interview Tuesday. “The time is absolutely right for this,” he said.

“Just look at the exodus of business from the city,” Bernson said. “One of the prime reasons businesses are saying they don’t want to locate here is the amount of time it takes to get their land-use approvals and the cost of housing for their employees. This proposal would help cut time and costs.”

Bernson speculated that Mayor Richard Riordan would be supportive of his proposal.

“I think he’s got to be on board,” Bernson said. “He campaigned on a program of making the city more business-friendly.” But Riordan’s deputy mayor handling planning matters, Rae James, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Helping Bernson lead this campaign will be city Planning Commission President Ted Stein, a top policy adviser to Riordan. Stein was recently nominated to sit on the city’s Airport Commission and would step down from the planning panel to take the new post.

Stein sits on an evolving panel of about 20 people picked by Bernson to help write final recommendations for loosening city land-use measures. All of the areas targeted for “reform” by Bernson must be modified by ordinance--and therefore are subject to City Council approval.

The chairman of the Bernson group, called the Task Force on Code Simplification, is Robert Scott, recently nominated by Riordan to sit on the Planning Commission. Scott, an attorney from the Valley, is a Republican who shares the view that City Hall too often stands in the way of development.

The Bernson panel, however, does have several homeowner representatives, including William Christopher, an architect who has been involved for years in the homeowner movement. Christopher serves as the panel’s vice chairman.

Among the ordinances singled out by Bernson is one dictating that commercial projects of more than 40,000 square feet had to be reviewed by the director of the Planning Department. This review process--which affected about 25 projects last year--can take up to seven weeks, said Frank Eberhard, a deputy planning director. Bernson says the threshold for such review should be increased to 100,000 square feet.

Bernson wants to expand the official list of projects eligible to be exempted from the city’s environmental review process. Projects so exempted could save from three to six weeks of time, Eberhard said.

Bernson, who represents the northwest Valley, also wants the city to be able to avoid having to notify the public of pending projects with newspaper ads. Bernson said mailed notices are sufficient to alert the public to projects affecting them.

Recently, the city Planning Commission disapproved a similar proposal to streamline the notification process “because of the outcry from homeowners,” Eberhard said.

Other proposals for change include cutting the amount of time allowed to appeal a project, phasing out interim control ordinances, and providing more opportunities each year for developers to seek plan amendments.