LA council moves to raise fees for appealing development decisions

The Los Angeles City Council voted 13-0 on Tuesday to have the city attorney draft an ordinance that would sharply raise the cost of appealing development and other land-use decisions, the Los Angeles Times reported. The council acted without discussion. Under the plan, the flat fee would rise from $229 to $1,145 for people who live near a contested project, and to $2,289 for everyone else, according to the Times and MyNewsLA.

An appeal is one of the main tools residents have to challenge a city decision. People use them to contest planning decisions and zoning actions, often because they believe a project will hurt their neighborhood, the Westside Current reported. The fee has been $229 for years and has only crept up each year to keep pace with inflation, according to the Times.

City officials say the fee covers too little of what appeals cost the city. The $229 fee covers about 1% of the estimated cost of processing an appeal, according to a Department of City Planning report cited by MyNewsLA. The city's general fund pays the rest. The proposed rates would recover 5% of the estimated cost from neighbors and 10% from people who do not live nearby. City Planning estimates the change could save the city about $245,086, MyNewsLA reported.

What to know

• The city attorney must draft the ordinance first. It then needs another council vote and the mayor's approval before it can take effect, MyNewsLA reported.
• For people who do not live near a project, the fee would be $2,289, and surcharges could push the total above $2,800, according to advocates cited by the Times and city documents cited by MyNewsLA.
• Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez proposed keeping the $229 fee for tenants who would be displaced by a development. He agreed to send that amendment to committee, as long as it returns on the same day the fee ordinance comes up for a vote, MyNewsLA reported.
• The Times said the proposal to protect displaced tenants was referred for study, not adopted.
• ABC7 reported the vote came the same day mayor-elect Nithya Raman attended her first council meeting since winning the mayor's race.

Several neighborhood councils oppose the plan. Among them are the United Neighborhoods of the Historic Arlington Heights, West Adams and Jefferson Park Communities Neighborhood Council and the West L.A. Sawtelle Neighborhood Council, MyNewsLA and the Westside Current reported. The Times reported that homeowner groups warned the change would make it much harder for residents to challenge city actions.

The neighborhood letter to the city argued that an appeal should not depend on how much money a person has. It warned that the increase "may disproportionately impact lower-income neighborhoods and communities of color," and that nonprofit groups across the political spectrum would also feel it. The Westside Current quoted the letter asking the council to reject the plan.

Supporters argue the other side of the trade-off. The Times reported that they say higher fees could deter appeals that cause unnecessary delays to housing projects. That is the core disagreement: whether appeals protect residents from bad projects or slow down projects the city wants built.

Our take

An appeal fee sounds like a small detail until you need one. For a renter or homeowner who lives close to a project, a rise from $229 to $1,145 is a real change, and the gap for people farther away is larger still. The city has a fair point that the general fund should not carry most of the cost of every appeal. The question is whether a resident who thinks a project is wrong can still afford to say so. Should the fee rise for everyone, or should lower-income residents and tenants have a lower rate?

Sources

• Los Angeles Times: Fighting City Hall will get a lot more expensive under plan backed by L.A. council
• MyNewsLA: LA Council Backs Plan to Raise Fees on Development Appeals
• Westside Current: LA Advances Plan to Raise Nearby Development Appeal Fees
• ABC7 Los Angeles: Mayor-elect Nithya Raman receives warm welcome from Los Angeles City Council at 1st meeting

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LA This Weekend Team