Council may raise review fees

Mission almost accomplished, Design Review Task Force Chairman Matt Lawson told the City Council at the Nov. 17 meeting.

Years of work paid off when the council approved the recommendations to complete the implementation of reforms in the design review process, including adding staff to provide the Design Review Board with project reports comparable to those routinely presented to the Planning Commission, and to review the application fees charged for projects that require a variance. City Manager Ken Frank will begin recruiting another planner immediately while working on ways the increased staff support for the board can be financed.

“After five years of public input, feedback, analysis, research and evaluation, it’s time to complete the process of DR reform and bring it into the second decade of the 21st century,” Lawson said.

Appointed in 2004, the task force issued its first report a year later to lay the ground work for the council’s Design Review Reform Program in 2006. In January 2006 and again in March 2007, the council requested an evaluation by the task force of the how the changes affected the review process.

“Nearly six years after council first addressed the need for design review reform, we’re pleased to report that design review is greatly improved,” Lawson said. “Contentiousness has diminished. Ordinances and policies are being enforced more consistently. Project approvals are up. The number of hearings per project and council appeals are down.”

Key recommendations, presented by task force member and Planning Commissioner Rob Zur Schmiede:

 Expand project-long, staff assistance to all new construction of more than 3,000 square feet, starting July 1, and remodels of more than 50% of the original square footage, and projects that include special circumstances;

 Expand the 10-day turn-around time for plan checks to allow staff to do the job right;

 Provide equal staff support to Planning Commission and Design Review Board; and

 Enhance quality assurance for staff reports through direct oversight by the director of Community Development (currently John Montgomery) for the next 12 months and feedback from the board and applicants.

Speakers also included task force members Marion Jacobs, “Background and Overview;” architect Lance Polster, “What’s Working;” architect Leslie LeBon, “Work in Progress;” attorney Gene Gratz, “What’s Not Working;” and Design Review Board Chairwoman Ilse Lenchow, “The Way Forward.”

Almost every speaker hammered home the recommendation to bring staff support for the design review board up to the Planning Commission’s level.

City Manager Ken Frank explained the disparity.

“For the past few years we have had a policy of 100% fee recovery in the zoning and building divisions, with the supposition that we have applicants and the applicants are going to pay for the services,” Frank said. “So we have two divisions that are really 100% applicant funded.”

This year fees were reduced by 25%, so the staff was reduced from four to three.

“But when you look at the planning division, the council has historically subsidized it heavily with general fund revenue,” Frank said. “The supposition there has been that [the commission] is really working primarily on long-term planning and that should not be a fee recovery process — it should be something the community should be spending general funds on.”

However, in recent years the Planning Commission has been assigned to hear applications for conditional use permits and temporary use permits. The staff reports have become more detailed, Frank said, and the short term planning also has been subsidized.

But the staff reports require two full-time planners for the two or three items on the commission agenda every two weeks, whereas design review has a many as 10 items on its agenda that could require staff reports, according to Frank.

“If you expect the same level of staff reports , it’s not going to happen without a huge influx of staff,” Frank said. “We are committed to try to see what happens when we take on all projects over 3,000 square feet on July 1 and see how bad it gets and how far back-logged we get and how many staff we need and we’ll come back with recommendations to kick up fees.”

Frank said he probably will also come back with a recommendation to increase CUP and TUP fees, doubling or even tripling them.

The city gets about $30,000 a year in fees for CUPS and about $3,000 a year for TUPs, Frank said.

A full-time planner with benefits costs the city between $130,000 and $140,000 a year.

“You [council] are basically subsidizing those reports by about $100,000 a year,” Frank said.

Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Pearson, who sat on the Planning Commission, opposed the fee increases.

“I don’t want to see us have to recoup the losses,” Pearson said. “We have to look at it as an investment in the community and put it into the budget.”

Lawson said investment in the design review process is vital to the community.

“DR is important,” Lawson said. “It touches us in our homes, where we live, and often our largest asset. DR sustains community values we hold dear and protects residential property values estimated at some $15 billion citywide.”

The full text of the Comprehensive Implementation Review of City Council’s 2006 Design Review Reform Program is available at www.lagunabeachcity.net. The minutes of the hearing will be available after approval at the December council meeting.