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KPBS Midday Edition

San Diego County Spares Local Planning Groups

Ron Roberts
County Spares Planning Groups
San Diego County Spares Local Planning Groups GUESTS Alison St John, KPBS Senior Metro Reporter

CAVANAUGH: I'm Maureen Cavanaugh, it's Thursday March†29th. We'll be talking about haft night's mayoral debate. But first Alison St. John joins us to talk about a vote by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. That vote reversed a plan that would have marginalized community plans groups. Welcome to the show. ST. JOHN: Hello, Maureen. CAVANAUGH: Now, traditionally, what role do community planning groups play in land use decisions? ST. JOHN: Well, these are advisory groups. And it's important to make the point that they're only for the unincorporated areas. But those are the areas that developers are most interested in. There's 26 of these groups around the unincorporated areas of the county. And they vary in how active they are. But they have the authority to advise the planning commission on applications for permits for new developments. CAVANAUGH: So who wanted to do away with them in a sense, and why? ST. JOHN: Well, are the county, it is true, a lot of time is taken to apply for permits. And so the idea was that the red tape reduction task force would come up with ways of streamlining the process of getting permits from the county. This is a task force initiated by supervisor Bill Horn and Ron Roberts last year. They worked for about a year and came up with these recommendations which included a lot of recommendations about the culture at the county, about the staff ands bureaucracy, and the forest that developers had to get through to get a permit. But it also recommended either eliminating or radically limiting the role of the local planning groups. CAVANAUGH: And why was that? ST. JOHN: Well, I guess the people on the red type task force, and many of those people were either developers or people connected with new developments. This is one of the criticisms that opponents of this recommendation made of that task force, felt that some planning groups asked too much of developers and are obstructionists and that they have a not in my backyard attitude, and that nothing developers can do can please them. So it would be a way to streamline the process if that role was restricted. CAVANAUGH: Now you did a report that played this morning on KPBS morning edition about this meeting before the supervisors yesterday. How did the groups defend themselves before the board? ST. JOHN: Well, about three dozen -- more than 30 people showed up the day off work and came down and very passionately spoke about the fact that these plans groups in some ways represent a democratic tool for the county in a system where, you know, there's some pretty powerful interests, and a lot of money at stake with these developments. And the local communities could get overwritten if the planning groups didn't exist. One of the speakers said, look, many of you guys up there are on first name bases with some of the developers, you might not even know when the community is thinking unless you had a planning group. Other people said, look, these groups represent years and years of experience on the ground, they are invaluable to the staff as well as to the county Board of Supervisors in giving you feedback about these new developments. So essentially there was an outcry about how this is a tool for the supervisors, that they would be ill advised to eliminate. CAVANAUGH: And the community planning groups won the day. Tell us what the supervisors did. ST. JOHN: Well, are the supervisors basically voted that there should be better training for the planning group. Of the big complaint from supervisor horn has been that he's felt there was a risk the county would be liable for a lot of legal fees if there were any, for example, Brown Act violations, open government type ethics rules might be breached if some of these volunteer advisory groups weren't properly up to speed on, you know, government regulations. He had accused them of costing the county a large amount of money. Once somebody found out how much they had cost the county, it turned out to be penny, literal $16 per year. So that particular argument seemed to be nixed. So the outcome seems to be that there will be better training devised by the county staff for these planning group members. They will have to take those -- the classes either online or in person before they're seated, and once a year. But then they did -- supervisor Horn and Roberts said there will be no forgiveness if somebody on the planning group breaks one of those laws and for example breaks the Brown Act, confers with other members of the group illegally before a meeting, the county would not back them. CAVANAUGH: Right. But for now, they stay. ST. JOHN: But they will continue to operate and be a part of the planning process in the county. CAVANAUGH: All right then. Thank you. ST. JOHN: My pleasure. CAVANAUGH: KPBS senior metro reporter, Alison St. John.

Supervisors Vote Not to Eliminate Planning Groups
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to reject a Red Tape Reduction Task Force recommendation that would have eliminated or muzzled community planning groups.

The Supervisors’ Red Tape Reduction Task Force made dozens of recommendations, designed to speed up getting permits for new developments in San Diego's unincorporated areas. Among them were several proposals to severely limit the role of community planning groups.

Jack Phillips of the Valle de Oro planning group was one of more than 30 people who appealed to the all-Republican board of supervisors not to do it.

“The task force attempt to eliminate or muzzle the local planning groups runs completely counter to this country’s historic self image,” he said. “This image was clearly defined 149 years ago by our greatest Republican president Abraham Lincoln. His vision was that government of the people, for the people, by the people shall not perish from the earth.“

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Others argued that without planning groups, communities wouldn’t stand a chance of influencing supervisors who, in some cases, know developers on a first name basis.

Sharon Haven of Alpine admitted some planning groups operate in a way that is frustrating for developers, but said that’s no reason to abolish them all.

“I’ve seen good planning groups and bad planning groups,” she told the supervisors, “but they are always reflective of the community. These are people who volunteer and they have passion and they have dedication and by and large they get the job done.”

Long-time activist Patsy Fritz accused Supervisor Bill Horn, who initiated the Red Tape Reduction Task Force, of exaggerating how much the planning groups cost the county in legal support.

“The public is not stupid,“ she said. “We see right through Supervisor Horn’s claim that indemnification will bankrupt the county. For the record - based on county council’s figures obtained through the Public Records Act - legal costs for planning and sponsor group members average $16.37 per year over the past 12 years.”

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When it came time for the board to make a decision, Supervisor Dianne Jacob said county planning has four legs, with professional planners, the planning commission, developers and community planning groups.

“If you cut off that forth leg,” she said,”the community planning and sponsor groups, the community participation, it’s like cutting off democracy.”

Supervisor Pam Slater Price speculated that the Red Tape Task Force had gone too far.

“I think it was just getting carried away saying, ‘Gee, what would we like to get rid of? Let’s just go down the list and add it all in and see how far we get.' I think this was not what we intended.“

As a last ditch attempt to control the planning groups, Supervisor Horn suggested the county should pay $230,000 a year to have a senior planner and an attorney at planning group meetings. But he relented even on that after hearing that the new proposal will require all the elected advisory group members to go through mandatory ethics and government training before they are seated, and then every year.

However Roberts and Horn were adamant that after the training, the county would not pay to cover legal costs for volunteer planning group members who violate ethics laws.

“If you use your cell phone to poll your board members before a meeting, that is a Brown Act violation.” Horn said. “I think they need to understand that. If training is thorough, I’ll forgo putting a council in their meeting.“

Board Chair Ron Roberts said he hoped the new training wouldn’t be as meaningless as some he’s been through, but would really equip the elected volunteer planning group members for service on the advisory groups.

Ultimately though, Roberts insisted the goal of the Red Tape Reduction Task Force must still be met. Many of their recommendations add up to a transformation of the way the county processes permit applications for new development.

“It’s taken us decades to get projects up here to the Board of Supervisors for review,” he said. “That is intolerable and we are going to change that.”

The way to do that, said Darren Gretler of the County Department of Planning and Land Use, is to change the culture at the county.

“Changing organizational culture will not be easy,” Gretler told the supervisors. “We are up to the challenge and our staff are ready.“

The planning group members, many of whom had taken the day off work to testify, breathed a sigh of relief and went home.